Severn Trent has been awarded The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark for its work at Tittesworth Reservoir – including helping boost the population of one of the UK’s fastest declining birds.

The stunning Staffordshire site is the largest UK reservoir to receive the national recognition.

The award recognises Severn Trent’s commitment to protecting and enhancing wildlife and habitats around the reservoir, which is home to the rare willow tit, plus nine species of bats, deer, polecats, hedgehogs and harvest mice – with many spotted on a wildlife-cam, set up on site.

Severn Trent rangers have helped expand breeding territories for the endangered bird, whose population in the UK has dropped by 97% since 1967*, following the loss of suitable woodland and urbanisation. This has been done by managing wet woodland to lower the canopy height and create dead wood, providing increased foraging area and nesting sites for the red-listed birds.

Today, only an estimated 3,400 breeding pairs of willow tits are found in the UK, with the species having vanished from much of the country, including becoming locally extinct across large parts of southern and eastern England.

Severn Trent ranger teams and ecologists have also carried out monitoring and surveys to meet the Biodiversity Benchmark criteria, including recording waxcap fungi on the species-rich grasslands.

Graham Osborn, Biodiversity Lead at Severn Trent, said: “We’re truly honoured to receive this award from The Wildlife Trusts, which recognises all the hard work undertaken to improve biodiversity at Tittesworth.

“This award reinforces the passion we have at Severn Trent for working on exciting projects that are truly doing the best for nature, the environment and our water and protecting it all for future generations.”

Richard Whiting, visitor site manager at Tittesworth, said: “We’re hugely proud of this award, as all our teams and volunteers work incredibly hard to ensure we are doing the best for nature at Tittesworth.

“Our visitor sites attract thousands of visitors a year who can come along and enjoy nature, walks, the scenery, and wildlife.

“We are also particularly proud of the work we are doing to help the willow tits at Tittesworth, by maintaining and expanding suitable habitat. It is hugely satisfying to know that the work is making a real difference to endangered species like these birds.

“We’re excited to build on this success and look at how we can bring the same approach to more of our sites in the future.” 

Julian Woolford, chief executive of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said: 
"At a crucial time for nature across the UK, it’s great to see another business stepping up and delivering for nature on their land through the Biodiversity Benchmark. We're particularly pleased that a key focus at Tittesworth has been enhancing wet woodland habitat for a population of breeding willow tits, helping to create more opportunities for this nationally rare species to thrive.   

“With Tittesworth Water supplying thousands across Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Leek with water daily, it’s vital that the provision of this precious resource enhances our natural environment. We look forward to continuing to work with Severn Trent to achieve this ambition for people, nature and climate alike.” 

Tittesworth provides water to Staffordshire, which was one area of the UK classed as officially in drought during the record dry and hot summer, with water being moved around the Severn Trent network to meet record demand.

While there has been recent rain, reservoirs are still recovering from the record lack of rainfall during the summer and Severn Trent is continuing to ask customers to be water wise all year round.

Longer term, the company is investing in a new 21-mile supply pipe from the much larger Carsington Reservoir to Tittesworth to meet demand from the key challenges of population growth and climate change – which is leading to more intense winter storms, along with hotter and drier summers.

Managing demand for water and enhancing supply options is part of a twin-track approach to ensuring that society’s water needs can be met into the future, whilst making sure that there’s enough water left in the environment to support nature too.

*(The UK breeding population of the willow tit has fallen by 97% since 1967 according to data from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), suffering one of the worst population declines of a resident UK bird in recent times.)