Wild Strathfillan – Hydrological survey, Colin Burt Reserve

Description

The Countryside Trust has been awarded funding through NatureScot’s Nature Recovery Fund to deliver the initial delivery phase of Wild Strathfillan. The Trust is working in partnership with land managers, local communities, environmental NGOs, businesses and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority to deliver this long-term project. Wetland habitat restoration at the Colin Burt Reserve has been identified as one of several key nature restoration initiatives that will be delivered across the Strathfillan landscape over the next two years. The reserve is 16.5 hectares in area, with wetland habitat covering 9.5 hectares. Attempts to drain the wetland habitat for cattle and sheep grazing have been made in the past, but unsuccessfully. After the purchase in 2005, it has been unmanaged and is now dominated by Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted hairgrass). The site is situated on the floodplain of the River Dochart, and in addition to wetland habitat, the site includes a conifer plantation, grassland habitat, and areas of recent native woodland planting. The site floods extensively every winter, completely submerging the wetland habitat, right up to the conifer plantation. With sensitive management, we aim to reduce the grass cover, and increase botanical species diversity. We would like to do this by introducing some wetland features to increase habitat heterogeneity. This includes creating scrapes and ponds, as well as maintaining and increasing the existing botanically rich ditches that currently support Beaver on the site. Lot 1: Our aspiration for the site is to increase the biodiversity of the wetland habitat. We intend to do this by: - Adopting a grass cutting regime to reduce sward height in some areas and allow the underlying wetland species to become better established. - Increase the botanical and structural diversity of vegetation which is currently uniform across the site. - Create some scrapes and ponds to increase habitat heterogeneity. - Planting of native wetland plants through seeds and possibly wildflower plugs across the wetland habitat for example along existing ditches or the new scrapes and ponds. - Possibly undertaking some tree planting of Willow species and Alder along some of the ditches to provide more feeding opportunities for Beavers, while being mindful of potential breeding waders such as Curlew. The services that we are currently seeking are in relation to the hydrological aspect of this project. We require advice on what we can do to improve the diversity of hydrological features on the site. The site is hydrologically complex, and we require the expertise of a hydrologist to advise us on the following: - We want to know more about the site’s hydrology and underlying geology to inform us of whether it is possible to create ponds and scrapes that would hold water. - If it is deemed possible to create them, we require advice on where we put them, how we design them in terms of their depth and size, and how many we create (and any other design requirements we need to consider). If test pits are required, this could form part of the contract. - We would like to know how long scrapes and ponds would retain water during the year. - Some advice on how to manage the large ditches, being mindful that they are used extensively by beavers. We would like to know if there is anything we can do to manage or improve the ditches that would be beneficial for the biodiversity of the site, while also maintaining the ditches as a food source for Beavers. - Any other advice regarding how we could sensitively manage the hydrology of the site for the benefit of biodiversity and increasing habitat heterogeneity. We are seeking submissions from applicants who can provide services as described above. Applicants will need to demonstrate a proven track record of delivering similar studies to inform wetland habitat restoration work. Involvement in delivery of wetland habitat restoration work would also be helpful but not a necessary requirement. Scope of services: The objective of this contract is to assess the site geology and hydrology, and based on this, make recommendations for the design of wetland habitat restoration features including, but not limited to, ponds, scrapes, and ditches. This is with the aim of benefiting and increasing biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity. The scope of services also includes considering annual extensive flooding of the site, and how this may impact wetland features. Consulting flood maps or models is therefore within the scope of this contract.. Value of contract is GBP 4000.00 - Rates and prices must be inclusive of VAT and shall be deemed inclusive of all additional expenses howsoever incurred.