A summer canal walk is a wonderful way to see butterflies, dragonflies, or birds dancing along the towpath. Yet all this life depends on remarkable plants growing quietly unnoticed along the water’s edge.
Plant life is nectar for all kinds of wildlife
For things to flutter or fly by we need to look after the canals themselves and especially the rich and fertile grasslands and hedges beside them.
It doesn’t happen by accident. Creating space for wildlife means carefully managing the balance, encouraging native plants to thrive, while stopping more aggressive species from taking over.
It’s slow, steady work that happens season by season, at nature’s pace. But with so many species at risk, and with an incredible 90% of wetlands lost in the UK, it’s urgently needed and on a huge scale.
Which is why, in a partnership project with Severn Trent called Unlocking Biodiversity, we’ve spent the last few years improving an incredible 134km of grassland and meadows alongside canals in the West Midlands. Our ecologists and volunteers planted a variety of native wildflowers that will not only create stunning borders of colour and scent but also help important pollinators like bees and butterflies thrive.
All of the plants we sowed were carefully considered, and none more so than by the Grand Union Canal at the Stockton cutting and near Hatton Locks. Here, careful observations by our volunteers made an important discovery. The small blue, one of the UK’s tiniest and most endangered butterflies, was making its home by our canals.
These butterflies depend on a single plant species. Female small blue butterflies will only lay their eggs on a native plant called kidney vetch, which is becoming increasingly difficult to find. With fewer places for females to lay eggs, the small blue butterfly faces an uncertain future.
Small blue butterflies like this are at risk due to lack of places to lay eggs
To encourage small blues to thrive, Emily Cowell, one of the ecologists heading up the project, and an army of volunteers planted up a 28km stretch with wildflowers. This included kidney vetch and also a native flower called birds-foot-trefoil, which adult small blues rely on for nectar. We have now created food sources in the two places we know the small blues can currently be found. Thanks to the scale of the planting, we’re hoping it may help bring the two populations together.
However, results won’t be instant, as Emily explains: “Kidney vetch is a perennial plant and takes about three or four years to really get going, so we're probably only just starting to see proper establishment of the habitat we've tried to create.”
While the kidney vetch establishes itself on the grassland alongside the canals, at the water’s edge we’ve been able to start another transformation. Aquatic plants are important for mammals, insects and fish and as part of the Unlocking Biodiversity project, we also laid 33km of new soft planting along hard canal banks.
The team used special coir rolls, made from coconut fibres, which were fixed along the banks. These rolls were planted up with native water plants that help fish and amphibians feed and shelter among their roots, and with flowering plants that attract dragonflies, damselflies, bees, and butterflies.
Coir rolls like this one help water voles find food and shelter
They also offer floating nesting sites for swans, ducks, moorhens and coots, wonderful hunting perches for herons, and importantly, food and shelter for Britain’s most endangered mammal.
We’ve lost 90% of our water voles since the 1970s, so providing homes for them is urgent work. Water voles use the lush borders created by the coir beds to rest and hide, and many of the plants are good food sources for them.
The rolls also create an instant ‘soft bank’ effect which helps the tiny creatures get up concrete or metal banks, so they can burrow and forage in other nearby habitats alongside the canals.
But caring for wildlife along our canals isn’t just about helping the right plants to grow, it’s also about carefully managing the ones that can quickly take over. Invasive species like giant hogweed pose a serious danger to the delicate balance of nature we’re working to restore.
Towering up to five metres tall, giant hogweed is so large that it blocks sunlight to the ground starving other native plants below. Then, when it dies off in winter, it leaves the banks of the canal bare and at risk of erosion. We know where the plant tends to spread and with each huge flower holding in the region of 20,000 seeds, removing the plant before the flowers appear is critical.
Giant Hogweed courtesy of Tom Richards, Wye and Usk Foundation
For humans, coming into contact with Giant hogweed can burn skin and cause lifelong issues when exposed to sun so removal is carried out by our specialist contractors wearing protective gear.
While a summer walk along the canal may feel peaceful and effortless, it’s worth remembering that much of the wildlife you see is there thanks to careful work behind the scenes, supported by you. Together, we’re creating the conditions for wildlife to thrive, now and into the future.
