Lapwing, redshank, curlew, snipe, and black-tailed godwit — Britain's iconic wading birds — have all declined severely as agricultural drainage has converted wet grassland to intensive arable or improved pasture. Their welfare depends on maintaining the waterlogged soils and invertebrate-rich conditions that wet grassland once provided.
Wading bird chicks require soft, wet soil invertebrate availability in their first weeks of life for protein. Drainage eliminates soil moisture, reducing invertebrate availability for chicks and causing starvation during the critical post-hatching period. Adults that select nests in sites converted to intensive arable have their nests destroyed by agricultural machinery during spring operations. Nest predation causes the acute welfare harm of predation plus the energy cost of repeat nesting attempts. Wet grassland restoration creates measurable welfare improvement by restoring food availability, reducing nest predation through predator management, and enabling natural chick mobility.