Dowles Brook flows through the heart of the

Wyre Forest __NOTOC__ Wyre Forest is a large, semi-natural (partially unmanaged) woodland and forest measuring which straddles the borders of Worcestershire and Shropshire, England. Knowles Mill, a former corn mill owned by the National Trust, lies wi ...

, into the former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Dowles and into the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

History

In 1902,

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and naturalist Jannion Steele Elliott purchased the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

building Dowles Manor, near the confluence of Dowles Brook into the Severn. By the time of his death, in 1942, he had bought up the surrounding land, piecemeal, until he owned the portion of the valley, formed by the Dowles Brook, surrounding Dowles Manor; he maintained this land as a nature reserve.

Conservation

During the summer of 2012, with funding from the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

, the

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is one of 46 wildlife trusts throughout the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1968 to conserve, protect and restore the county's wildlife. The Trust owns and manages over 70 nature reserves across the county, part ...

attempted an ambitious project to eradicate the invasive

Himalayan Balsam ''Impatiens glandulifera'', Himalayan balsam, is a large annual plant native to the Himalayas. Via human introduction it is now present across much of the Northern Hemisphere and is considered an invasive species in many areas. Uprooting or cutt ...

from a 3 km watercourse, hoping to improve

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and reduce

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and ...

. A pilot project was carried out on the Lem Brook, a tributary of the Dowles Brook.This was a success but as the seeds persist in the soil for up to two years repeat eradication was planned for 2014 followed by close monitoring.Peter Case April 2013 ''Open Space Invaders'', p53 Worcestershire Life Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

References

Dowles Brook 1Dowles Rivers of Worcestershire {{England-river-stub