Help
Add this page to your book
Show book (0 pages)
Suggest pagesNewport Wetlands Reserve
Newport Wetlands Reserve is a wildlife reserve between Uskmouth, Nash and Goldcliff, in the south-east of the city of Newport, South Wales.
Contents |
[edit] History
The reserve was first established in 2000 to mitigate losses of wildlife habitat when the Cardiff Bay Barrage scheme was undertaken.
The site is owned and managed by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW). A new visitors and education centre was opened in Nash at the site in March 2008 by the RSPB with help from Newport City Council and water level management assistance by Caldicot and Wentloog Levels Internal Drainage Board[1].
The reserve covers 437 hectares (1,080 acres) [2] of the Caldicot Level, a low lying area of land bordering the northern shore of the Severn Estuary. Part of the site is a reclaimed fuel ash disposal site, although some farmland in Goldcliff and Nash has also had to be flooded to complete the work.
The reserve was made a National Nature Reserve on 16 April 2008[3].
[edit] Habitats and species
The reserve includes a wide variety of habitats which include grazed pasture with hedgerows, ditches, reens, reed beds and grasslands. These help to attract breeding birds such as lapwings, redshanks, oystercatchers, little ringed plovers and ringed plovers, as well as visitors such as wigeons, shovelers, teals, shelducks and pintails, bitterns, hen harriers and short-eared owls.
Im January 2012 two Glossy Ibis were sighted at Goldcliff.[4]
[edit] Lighthouses
East Usk Lighthouse is within the area of the reserve. The more substantial West Usk Lighthouse, currently operating as a hotel, is on the opposite (west) bank of the River Usk and can be viewed from the reserve.
[edit] References
- ^ C&WLIDB News Article
- ^ Newport Wetlands at bbc.co.uk
- ^ CCW press release
- ^ [http://www.gwentbirds.org.uk/index.php?option=com_chronoconnectivity&Itemid=19 "Sightings" at gwentbirds.org.uk]
[edit] External links
- Newport City Council - Newport Wetlands
- BBC News - £3m visitors' centre for wetlands
- BBC - Newport Wetlands
- RSPB - Newport Wetlands
- Caldicot & Wentlooge Level Internal Drainage Board
- www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Newport Wetlands Reserve and surrounding area
Coordinates: 51°32′46″N 2°57′40″W / 51.546°N 2.961°W
 |
This Newport location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
