Bourne Valley SSSI Water Level Management Plan

The Bourne Valley Water Level Management Plan (WLMP) is being prepared for Borough of Poole Leisure Services unit.  It provides a formal basis for future management of water levels within the SSSI.  The full report will be available here.

Ecological Quality

We have found only one historic study which describes the wildlife habitat quality of the stream and valley:

Patrick D. Armitage, John H. Blackburn & Kay L. Symes (1994) The environmental quality of a small urban water course, the Bourne Stream (Dorset), assessed with macroinvertebrate data.  Institute of Freshwater Ecology

Read it here (file size 78kb)

That has recently been followed up, and results compared with a 2003 ecological survey of the SUDS (available here) as part of the requirement for the Bourne Valley Water Level Management Plan (WLMP):

Robert Aquilina (2005) Ecological Survey of the Bourne Stream in the Bourne Valley SSSI, Poole, Dorset.

Read it here (file size 460kb)

Local ecological surveys are also carried out at project sites before and after major works:

» Coy Pond Gardens baseline ecological survey - Robert Aquilina, 2003 (file size 100kb)

» Coy Pond Gardens follow-up survey - Robert Aquilina, 2005 (file size 200kb)

» Alderney Recreation Ground baseline ecological survey - Robert Aquilina, 2005 (file size 550kb)

Robert Aquilina is a local environmental quality consultant - visit his website at www.aquilina-environmental.co.uk