The new woodland habitat, enabled by funding from the Environment Agency, is intended to deliver a host of environmental benefits including; flood improvements, carbon storage and enhanced biodiversity of wildlife in the area.

The trees have been deliberately planted to incorporate lots of open space, creating a mosaic of scrub, grassland and woodland. We hope this approach will help deliver for the greatest variety of wildlife including; pollinating insects, small mammals and nesting birds.

Joe Pimblett, Operations Manager for Cheshire Wildlife Trust said: “We anticipate wildlife to respond quickly to the change in management, with pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies taking full advantage of the reduced grazing pressure and associated increase in flowering plants.

Furthermore, bird species such as redstart will hopefully, in time, start to exploit the increased nesting and foraging opportunities that the planting will help to create.”

In general, this work is focussing on the steep cloughs that exist in this area, which helps to create linear corridors for wildlife to move more easily through our countryside. The permeability of our countryside for wildlife is crucial if we are going to create a resilient landscape in which people and wildlife can thrive.