The WWT London Wetland Centre may be one of the most striking visuals and views I have encountered on my many trips to urban rewilding projects reporting for LettsSafari +. Peering out of a specially constructed viewing building, across landscapes intentionally impossible to access for the public, seeing wetlands, marsh, reeds and birds stretch out before me, before finally getting the intermittent visions of city life in the skyline was something like a surreal moment. And the trek through the tour-able sections of WWT London Wetland project really brought the experience of the wetlands up close. A sense that this is a really important place.

The considerable number of achievements, examples and elements that can be drawn from this project are far too many to cover in a normal version of this series, instead I will cover as much as I can through a number of posts, with this first edition aiming to cover the diverse animal life of the Wetlands.

First though, it will be useful to understand something about WWT and their history. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust was founded in 1946, on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, and in 2000 set up the London Wetland Centre, aiming to create a safe oasis of wetlands, and a space for environmental education in the nation’s capital.

The focus of the project is on maintaining wetland spaces, the biodiversity that they produce, and the crucial role they have to play in both the health of our planet and physical and mental health of our species. At the project they have focused on cultivating an incredibly diverse range of animals as well, from the headline otters, to the numerous species of endangered bird life.

Beginning with those headliners, the London Wetlands Centre has invested in two otters, around 1 and a half years old, who feature as pretty much the first animals you encounter as you enter the project, which must be appealing to the young children and students visiting the project.

The otter, beyond a way to drive more traffic to the project, represent an essential element in the ecological balance of a water based environment. An apex predator, the otter helps maintain kelp balances, keeping aquatic populations at the appropriate levels, and also uses digging and storing to shift soils, affect environments, and promote consistent ecological change.

On top of this, they are one of the most effective animals when it comes to converting environments into efficient carbon sinks. With one of the highest ratios of diet and body weight powered by an incredibly high metabolic rate, these cute water dwellers efficiently convert animal and plant life into biomass, a key step in the carbon cycle and in contributing to a shift in our carbon reduction.

One conservative estimate of the potential reintroduction of mass sea otter populations to the Pacific Northwest suggested the animals would be able to eventually produce environments capable of sequestering enough carbon to offset the carbon output of 100,000 internal combustion cars.

Beyond the popular otters, London Wetland Centre is filled with birdlife of all kinds. There are specifically aquatic birds which share habitats with the otter. They are attracted by both the wetland environment which protects their nests from natural urban predators like the city fox, and nutrition found in the impressive fish and aquatic populations perpetuated by the wetland environment.

Other birds though are not aquatic. They are encouraged to stay at the Wetlands Centre through the construction of infrastructure that ensures them the best opportunity to safely and comfortably nest. The structures as seen in the image above, encourage them to lay eggs. Although rudimentary and basic, they still provide safety from the elements, ensuring those birds contribute to growing populations. It’s all designed to increase the diversity and numbers of wildlife.

The WWT has constructed other forms of wetland environment to replicate beaches/sandy environments. The sand banks create habitats appealing to different kinds of birdlife, increasing the overall diversity of wildfowl at the project.

Additionally the built up shoreline rock promotes algae, crustacean and small crayfish, again aimed at expanding the diversity of birds, and increase the unique kind of plant and animal life within the project at a micro level. It also helps promote numerous unique habitats, ensuring the wetlands themselves remain heterogeneous in nature.

Creating and maintaining diversity in nature is a difficult issue with many rewilding projects that focus on artificially protecting or constructing one form of habitat over another. Its why at LettsSafari we promote the use of numerous habitats, and waterways, to encourage heterogeneous environments for biodiverse rewilding projects.

Overall, the Wetlands Centre in Barnes, London, has done a fantastic job of accomplishing WWT’s mission. They set out in 2000 to create a safe space for diverse ranges of plant and animal life in the capital, to increase the safe habitats for wildfowl, to build a place that would support the reintroduction of the featured otters. They have succeeded in creating a series of unique spaces. Most importantly the centre provides essential proof, within the heart of London, of why we ought to aim to restore the kinds of habitats found in this project, and the potential rewards waiting for us if we do.

In our upcoming editions of Urban Rewilding we will also be taking the opportunity to explore the environments of the WWT Wetlands in Barnes in detail, with a discussion of the practical rewilding techniques the project is implementing, and how this is helping produce natural habitats essential to creating these unique plant and animal populations discussed here.

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