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Spacial IntegrityLandscapes · Scotland

Ecological Projects

Returning Water to the Land

Wetland creation and native woodland establishment on twenty hectares of degraded farmland.

Returning Water to the Land
Scope
Ecological design, delivery, monitoring
Area
20 hectares
Trees
40,000 native, local provenance

The story

Ayrshire · 2025

The field had been drained for a century and produced less each decade. We stopped draining it.

Shallow scrapes, a re-meandered burn, and forty thousand native trees in tubes. Within eighteen months, snipe, lapwing and water vole.

Ecological design is not decoration. It is the deliberate removal of the things preventing a landscape from repairing itself.

  • Returning Water to the Land — view 1
  • Returning Water to the Land — view 2
  • Returning Water to the Land — view 3

Design process

How the work was made.

  1. 01

    Baseline ecology

    Full habitat and species baseline, with hydrological modelling of the catchment.

  2. 02

    Earthworks

    Minimal, precise cut and fill — all material retained on site.

  3. 03

    Establishment

    Native provenance stock, natural regeneration prioritised wherever possible.

  4. 04

    Monitoring

    Ten-year monitoring framework agreed with the funding partner.

Outcome

Twenty hectares of functioning wetland mosaic, and a measurable rise in breeding bird territories.