Freshwater Habitats Trust volunteer on looking after rare wetland plants for a reintroduction project in Oxfordshire
MEET THE VOLUNTEER
The Freshwater Habitats Trust’s new project, GroWet, involves getting volunteers to look after a rare wetland plant at home over the growing season, receiving it in spring as a seedling and caring for it as it develops. These plants are then reintroduced to one of the historic wetlands managed by the UK charity in Oxfordshire. In 2022, volunteer Roary Neat looked after parsley water-dropwort (Oenanthe lachenalii): “It’s an umbellifer which, while still distributed widely around coastal marshes and fens, is declining in inland sites and listed as Near Threatened in England.”
“Over the time I was looking after it, my plant flowered and self-seeded, so much so that I was able to return not just the one plant I had started with but three seedlings that could be planted out in a local wetland,” says Roary. “The idea behind the project is to reintroduce some of the county’s once plentiful but now rare wetland plants, which will in turn help to restore wetland habitats for other wildlife.” GroWet takes place over the growing season for the plants involved, from June to October, but there are other volunteer opportunities organised by the Freshwater Habitats Trust, from national pond surveys to helping out in the office, which take place all year round.
“I looked after my GroWet plant alone but ther
