The project’s aim is to restore the Wye catchment to a healthy condition, so its rivers and their tributaries can support the unique wildlife that depends on them, provide clean and plentiful water, be resilient to climate change, mitigate flood risk, enable sustainable farming and provide places for people to enjoy.
The project - Wyescapes; Food, Nature, Water – is a partnership between Herefordshire Rural Hub, the Wye Valley AONB Partnership, Herefordshire Wildlife Trust and the Wye and Usk Foundation and will involve an initial groups of 36 farmers.
The project’s aim is to restore the Wye catchment to a healthy condition, so its rivers and their tributaries can support the unique wildlife that depends on them, provide clean and plentiful water, be resilient to climate change, mitigate flood risk, enable sustainable farming and provide places for people to enjoy.
The River Wye and surrounding landscape together create an iconic landscape, hugely important for nature due to its wide range of rare river wildlife, loved by people and important for farming. In 2010 the River Wye was voted the nation’s favourite river, described as "magical and timeless" but by 2023, TV programmes, celebrities and communities were decrying the polluted and degraded state of the river. Earlier this year, both the River Wye and River Lugg had their status downgraded by Natural England ‘unfavourable – declining’ due to declines in declines in Atlantic salmon, white-clawed crayfish and aquatic plants.
The project is happening on a huge scale, initially focusing on a core area of 7,694 hectares of floodplain, managed by 36 farmers, but with scope to widen to an even larger area. Farmers will be supported by the partners to take actions to restore the rivers’ health such as reducing the intensity of production, reverting some fields from arable growing to pasture or meadow and to create new wetlands, floodplain meadows and woodlands. These measures will see a reduction in nutrients such as phosphates entering the rivers as well as reducing run-off of soils which silt up river beds.
Posted On: 30/11/2023
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