Loddon Catchment Biodiversity Strategy

The Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership has been working with:

• Environment Agency (funders)
• Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
• Hampshire County Council
• Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
• Wokingham Unitary Authority

to produce a strategy to conserve the special wildlife reliant on water in the Loddon catchment of which the River Blackwater is a major tributary.

The initial report Biodiversity Strategy: The Loddon Catchment was published in 2005.

Habitats identified for action are:

• Woodlands & hedgerows
• Pasture woodland & parkland
• Arable & improved grassland
• Unimproved neutral grassland
• Lowland wet grassland
• Fen, marsh, swamp and reedbeds
• Lowland heathland, bog and acid grassland
• Standing open water
• Chalk stream
• Canals

Species of particular concern not covered within a habitat action plan are:

• Otter
• Water Vole
• Great Crested Newt
• White Clawed Crayfish
• Loddon Lily
• Tower Mustard

The Blackwater Valley has been chosen as one of the strategic areas within the catchment for which detailed actions will be proposed.