WORK starts this month on the creation of a new wetland at Dorset Wildlife Trust's Winfrith and Tadnoll reserve.

Wading birds, including snipe and curlew, used to breed on the old prison fields but the habitat was lost when the area was drained for agriculture in the mid-1800s.

The trust plans to return the area to permanent pasture with a wetter area near the Tadnoll Brook and acid grassland near the existing heath.

The work will involve re-profiling the ditches so that they are shallower and making the sides less steep, creating a soft muddy area for wading birds to probe for food with their long bills. There will also be two temporary shallow ponds.

Water will be held back in the ditches by sluices from late spring to June after which the sluices will be opened and the area can be grazed.

To restore wet grassland, hay will be cut later in the summer from the nearby grazing marsh and spread on the fields to allow new seed to take hold.

Rivers and wetlands officer Sarah Williams said: "It will not be pretty at first as the diggers move in and the fields turn to mud but gradually the new plants will become established and we should have a habitat fit to welcome the waders in a few years and people will be able to enjoy them."

Work is due to start on Monday and will involve the closure of the old prison fields and riverside for health and safety reasons, but a new dog walking area will be provided later in the summer and the heathland will remain open.

DWT stresses that dogs should be kept on leads from March to July on all heathland areas.

It is hoped that lapwings will lead the return of wading species to the six-hectare wetland as they already breed nearby. Lapwings have 'amber' status as birds of conservation concern, having declined over the last 25 years in Britain.