PINPOINT

Just leaving Cornwall after a week learning how to identify and tackle diffuse pollution of rivers using the PINPOINT method. Its the end of October and the weather has been impresive, hitting 18 to 20 degrees most days. Three of my fellow students spent their mornings swimming off the North coast. It wasn't for me, as much for the 5am starts as anything.

The course was run by the West Country Rivers Trust and the Association of Rivers Trusts. We were given a great insight into the work the West Country Rivers Trust have carried out down in Cornwall and Devon on finding win-win situations with landowners and farmers to reduce inputs of sediments and nutrients to rivers. This improves in-stream habitats and increases Salmon and Trout numbers. It also creates a deeper understanding between farming and conservation creating less polarised views.

It was good to see a variety of farms from high intensity dairy operations to low input extensive organic smallholdings. The contrast between the two was fascinating. We saw how dairy operations can concentrate nutrients over a small area of land whilst more extensive systems gave us a view into a nearly lost pastoral English landscape that provides a true habitat mosaic. What was even more intriguing was the mix of options between the two systems that helped tackle diffuse pollution. Simple measures such as fencing river banks, putting hard coverings around supplementary feeders, sub-soiling to reduce soil compaction and coppicing multi-stem river bank trees to reduce shading and increase ground cover all enhance riparian habitats and break the links between erosion sources and watercourses.

Its now the turn of myself and my fellow students and rivers trusts colleagues to roll out similar schemes around the country. Its only by working with agricultural communities that we will find ways to reduce diffuse pollution without impacting on farm incomes. Many of the options available will even save time and money.

The rivers are quiet.

I keep getting reports of fish movement upstream but I haven’t had the luck to spot anything yet. Since the records came in the rivers have dropped again. Even though there’s been a day of rain it has only just made the dizzy heights of light drizzle and the river is stubbornly refusing to respond. I went down to Aysgarth Falls late afternoon on Sunday but the water was so low nothing would have made the attempt. A heron and a few mallard ducks sat above the upper falls and that was about all. The electro-fishing kit is in store for the year and my sampling nets are only going to get another day or so. Things in the rivers seem quiet and there is just the spawning to come and then it will be a matter of waiting for spring before I can start serious river surveys again.

Plenty to do in the meantime so boredom won’t be a factor. Down to Cornwall next week to learn about a farm survey method called PINPOINT that the river trusts and Natural England have organised. This aims to help identify where the sources of diffuse pollution on a farm are. It should help farmers meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, may even save some money. Then there are lots of farm surveys to carry out before I take three weeks leave. The plan is to lock myself away on Islay and get on with writing up the project I’ve been working on for the past three years. I’m hoping it will be miserable forcing me to sit in and get on with it...it would be just my luck for unseasonal sun!

Raydale and Semer Water catchment project

Work in Raydale has been going well with Deborah Millward leading a fantastic catchment project. This small valley has it all, forestry, dairy, beef, sheep, moors, nature reserves, one of only two glacial lakes in Yorkshire, a good number of gills and streams and one of Englands shortest rivers, the Bain. The dale has an active farming community that contain knowledge stemming from generations of land management.

As with all land in the UK there are pressures and conflicts for space which has resulted in a number of issues that the Raydale project has been trying to address. First there is the threat of a changing climate that seems to be resulting in heavier downpours and rapid flows of water. This is compounded by artificially drained moors which allow water to flush through the catchment with greater speed then would naturally occur. Fleet moss, one of the moors at the head of the dale, is severely eroded and hagged and has delivered tonnes of sediment to the river network resulting in habitat degradation for fish and riverflies. Moving downstream it appears that gills and stream banks are eroding with stock access to rivers exacerbating this in a few places.

With leadership from Deborah and the local community a good number of actions have taken place that will help reduce land management risk to rivers. This has included fencing off river banks, planting gills with native trees and restoring a gravel bed stream that has been running over a historic right of way back to its natural course. Further action will include the devlopment of a small hydro-electric scheme which may provide a future income for Raydale and help them establish their own charity to support the community and land managers in future years.

Over the next few years it is expected that the open drains on the moors will be blocked and heather restoration will be carried out. Lower down the dale catchment sensitive farming methods are being championed to ensure that farmers can achieve an income whilst also preserving the beauty and ecology of the dale and its streams.