Fencing

Our most common habitat improvement is to fence livestock away from watercourses to reduce the sediment and nutrient load entering and smothering aquatic species. Often when we fence off a watercourse we try to include a buffer strip or corridor alongside the river where we plant trees, these trees provide shelter for wildlife, the roots of the trees bind the river banks together and the trees use up any excess nutrients which may be running off agricultural land so preventing it reaching the river. Trees also use up a lot of water and can be beneficial in reducing the size of floods. 

Fencing helps to address the following issues: