Nature & Wildlife
The Gwent Levels is a landscape shaped by time itself. Centuries of gradual change and careful stewardship have created one of the most remarkable wetlands in Britain—a place where wildlife doesn’t simply survive, but flourishes.
Across the landscape, every field is embraced by a watercourse, weaving a living network that teems with possibility. In the grips, ditches, reens and rivers, life unfolds in extraordinary variety: from Wolffia arrhiza, the world’s smallest flowering plant, to grass snakes gliding through the reeds, otters slipping through still waters, and kingfishers flashing like jewels in flight. Delicate water plantain, elegant arrowhead, pondweeds, starworts and floating frogbit thrive in these crystal-clear channels.
This is a place of rarity and wonder. Wales’s most distinctive collection of water beetles thrives here, including the great silver water beetle—found nowhere else in the nation. The Levels also stand as one of the last strongholds for the shrill carder bee, a soft‑buzzing symbol of resilience.
Above the wetlands, the sky is alive with birds. Avocets, curlews, oyster catchers, lapwings and shelduck feed along the rich coast and grasslands. And, in a triumph of recovery, marsh harriers, common cranes and bitterns have returned to breed. After more than two centuries, the deep, resonant boom of the male bittern now echoes once again across the Levels.
Protected species—from dormice and bats to otters, great crested newts and the charismatic water vole—find sanctuary here. Water voles, once lost from these wetlands, are now steadily returning thanks to dedicated reintroduction and mink control led by Gwent Wildlife Trust.
The Gwent Levels form one of the largest remaining expanses of coastal and floodplain grazing marsh in the UK—10,500 hectares crossed by over 1,500 km of historic reens and ditches. Within this landscape lie eight SSSIs, covering 5,700 hectares, designated to protect the exceptional assemblage of plants and invertebrates shaped by centuries of traditional water and vegetation management.
To the south, the Severn Estuary widens into a vast, shimmering refuge—an internationally important haven for rare birds, saltmarsh habitats and species such as lamprey, shad, salmon and eel. The Rivers Usk and Wye, both Special Areas of Conservation, complete this mosaic of extraordinary habitats, supporting vital fish species including sea lamprey, twaite shad and Atlantic salmon.
Together, these landscapes form one of the UK’s most inspiring natural treasures—alive with history, resilience and the quiet brilliance of nature at its best.
