Our School was asked by the Wilder Horsham Project to assist them with a Leaky Dam project on a local farm in Warnham.
We were very excited about this venture as the dams that we built will slow the flow of water in a stream that runs directly into the Arun River. The children were tasked with collecting sticks and brush wood and then behaving like beavers to make small dams across the stream.
Leaky dams are natural flood management that provide a huge range of natural benefits to people and wildlife. In addition to storing and slowing water for flood reduction, woody material, or “leaky barriers” provide important habitat for a range of aquatic species. They also help improve water quality by encouraging sediment and pollutants to settle out, and they help streams to generate more habitats.
This was a great opportunity for the children to develop their teamwork, problem solving, environmental knowledge, communication, engineering skills and resilience.
As you can see they worked extremely hard, successfully built 5 leaky dams, had a great day out and were able to use all their Forest Skills in a real world situation. We are very proud of them and they conducted themselves brilliantly.
