Most people accept this as bad weather. Few realise it's exposing two different problems with how the meadows along the Deveron currently function. And both will get worse as climate change brings more extreme rainfall and longer dry spells. The water pooling on paths, making winter walks impossible, is a drainage and infrastructure problem. Compacted ground, poor path design, water with nowhere to go. That's degraded access. But at the same time, the meadows have lost the seasonal flooding pattern that once made them function as proper wetland habitat. Flood defence works altered the hydrology years ago, drying out the soil profile and changing what grows there. Scrub and saplings are encroaching on open grassland. The wet meadow ecosystem that used to regulate water flow, filter nutrients, and provide feeding grounds for curlew, snipe, and grasshopper warbler is degrading. So the meadows are both too wet in the wrong places and not wet enough in the right way. One problem makes the space unusable for people. The other makes it less valuable for wildlife and less effective at the work nature does, storing floodwater, purifying water, supporting the species this landscape depends on. Most people accept this as bad weather. Few realise it's exposing two different problems with how the meadows along the Deveron currently function. And both will get worse as climate change brings more extreme rainfall and longer dry spells. The water pooling on paths, making winter walks impossible, is a drainage and infrastructure problem. Compacted ground, poor path design, water with nowhere to go. That's degraded access. But at the same time, the meadows have lost the seasonal flooding pattern that once made them function as proper wetland habitat. Flood defence works altered the hydrology years ago, drying out the soil profile and changing what grows there. Scrub and saplings are encroaching on open grassland. The wet meadow ecosystem that used to regulate water flow, filter nutrients, and provide feeding grounds for curlew, snipe, and grasshopper warbler is degrading. So the meadows are both too wet in the wrong places and not wet enough in the right way. One problem makes the space unusable for people. The other makes it less valuable for wildlife and less effective at the work nature does, storing floodwater, purifying water, supporting the species this landscape depends on. Most people accept this as bad weather. Few realise it's exposing two different problems with how the meadows along the Deveron currently function. And both will get worse as climate change brings more extreme rainfall and longer dry spells. The water pooling on paths, making winter walks impossible, is a drainage and infrastructure problem. Compacted ground, poor path design, water with nowhere to go. That's degraded access. But at the same time, the meadows have lost the seasonal flooding pattern that once made them function as proper wetland habitat. Flood defence works altered the hydrology years ago, drying out the soil profile and changing what grows there. Scrub and saplings are encroaching on open grassland. The wet meadow ecosystem that used to regulate water flow, filter nutrients, and provide feeding grounds for curlew, snipe, and grasshopper warbler is degrading. So the meadows are both too wet in the wrong places and not wet enough in the right way. One problem makes the space unusable for people. The other makes it less valuable for wildlife and less effective at the work nature does, storing floodwater, purifying water, supporting the species this landscape depends on. Most people accept this as bad weather. Few realise it's exposing two different problems with how the meadows along the Deveron currently function. And both will get worse as climate change brings more extreme rainfall and longer dry spells. The water pooling on paths, making winter walks impossible, is a drainage and infrastructure problem. Compacted ground, poor path design, water with nowhere to go. That's degraded access. But at the same time, the meadows have lost the seasonal flooding pattern that once made them function as proper wetland habitat. Flood defence works altered the hydrology years ago, drying out the soil profile and changing what grows there. Scrub and saplings are encroaching on open grassland. The wet meadow ecosystem that used to regulate water flow, filter nutrients, and provide feeding grounds for curlew, snipe, and grasshopper warbler is degrading. So the meadows are both too wet in the wrong places and not wet enough in the right way. One problem makes the space unusable for people. The other makes it less valuable for wildlife and less effective at the work nature does, storing floodwater, purifying water, supporting the species this landscape depends on. Most people accept this as bad weather. Few realise it's exposing two different problems with how the meadows along the Deveron currently function. And both will get worse as climate change brings more extreme rainfall and longer dry spells. The water pooling on paths, making winter walks impossible, is a drainage and infrastructure problem. Compacted ground, poor path design, water with nowhere to go. That's degraded access. But at the same time, the meadows have lost the seasonal flooding pattern that once made them function as proper wetland habitat. Flood defence works altered the hydrology years ago, drying out the soil profile and changing what grows there. Scrub and saplings are encroaching on open grassland. The wet meadow ecosystem that used to regulate water flow, filter nutrients, and provide feeding grounds for curlew, snipe, and grasshopper warbler is degrading. So the meadows are both too wet in the wrong places and not wet enough in the right way. One problem makes the space unusable for people. The other makes it less valuable for wildlife and less effective at the work nature does, storing floodwater, purifying water, supporting the species this landscape depends on.