Canals as wildlife corriders

A NEW project has been launched to created corridors along the canals and rivers in Cheshire 'to allow birds, mammals and insects to move more freely'.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has already given £212,800 to allow a full application for £2.2 millions by a nature partnership, with the full amount already set aside, Keith Gudgin reveals.

Wildlife haven

We are told 'Our aim is to ensure that the full potential of our landscape heritage is reached, for the benefit of wildlife and the community' and is a plan to create a 'wildlife haven' in Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

The plan is to use the canals and rivers to link up the existing Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation and nature reserves for the various species to allow birds, mammals and insects to move more freely

Not clear

It is not clear why they would need to move more freely, as it is accepted they stay and breed in their own areas, and birds particularly are quite capable of flying many hundreds of miles to their preferred sites.

But it would seem that this particular nature lobby has its eyes firmly set on our canals, and we can but hope it they will not become another 'Montgomery' where boating is so restricted and any waterway conservation is met with horror.

Enhanced corridors

However, Anne Selby, chairman of Greater Manchester Local Nature Partnership, claimed that the enhanced corridors of wetland habitats would allow free movement of key species into, out of and between local wildlife sites.

What is so alarming is that there are many waterways in Cheshire, with Manchester a hub for many, so will they become like the picture, with miles and miles of reeds flanking their banks, with boating once again way down the pecking order?