Cattle and ponies on the shoreline

It was a wet and wintery day at Prestwick Carr today.  Fortunately all the livestock is on the higher ground and they all (except the sheep) seemed to be intrigued by the large lake that has appeared.

Of course this large lake is the site doing exactly what it should be doing.  All the water stored here is going to take time to get out into the Rivers Pont and Blyth so helping to keep river levels more manageable.  If all this water was being drained from the site as quickly as possible someone, somewhere downstream would be bound to suffer the consequences.  Management of land like this to store floodwater is one of the techniques that need to be put in place to help reduce flooding throughout the UK; it has the advantage of being a natural solution and one that is good for wildlife too.

The management of this site is designed to accept the flooding that occurrs, we just have to be careful that all the livestock is safe with high ground to escape onto.

A temporary lake…