Ouse Washes
- Country:United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Site number:77
- Area:2,469 ha
- Designation date:05-01-1976
- Coordinates:52°28'N 00°11'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
Overview
Ouse Washes. 05/01/76; England; 2,469 ha; 52°29'N 000°12'E. Special Protection Area EC Directive; SSSI. Added to the Montreux Record, 31/10/00. A long, narrow area of seasonally flooded grassland providing flood storage, set between two channelized rivers. Wintering waterbirds regularly exceed 20,000 individuals, including nationally and internationally important numbers of wintering swans and various duck species. The site is of national importance for breeding ducks and waders. Human activities include traditional livestock grazing and hay production. Declining numbers of breeding waterfowl, changes in vegetation communities, and declining water quality, apparently caused by an increase in summer flooding, among other things, led the government to add Ouse Washes to the Montreux Record in October 2000. Subject of a Ramsar Advisory Mission in 2001. Ramsar site no. 77. Most recent RIS information: 1999.
Administrative region:
England
- National legal designation:
- bird sanctuary
- sssi
- Regional (international) legal designations:
- EU Natura 2000
- Last publication date:01-01-1999