Catchment officers, John Hickey and Lucy Jefferson, have been out and about across the Culm Catchment meeting landowners, residents, and community groups – all working towards our shared goal: installing nature-based solutions (NBS) and bringing the Connecting the Culm Blueprint vision to life.
Natural flood management progress
We’ve been busy installing natural flood management across the catchment, like tree and hedge planting, leaky dams, scrapes, bunds, and channel infilling works. The photo above shows some leaky dams installed on a farm near Hemyock, and the one below a scrape to store water in a farm near Kentisbeare. Plus, our PhD students are monitoring water flow improvements in the Ken Catchment.
Community engagement
We’re continuing conversations with parish councils and local communities to tackle flooding challenges together.
Partnership working
- Collaborating with landowners on nature-based solutions and sustainable soil management
- Working with the Woodland Trust at Hunkin Wood, Culmstock
- Partnering with The Duchy Estate near Cole Brook, Cullompton
- Planning flood resilience works with Mid Devon District Council around Cole Brook and Crow Green stream
- Ongoing work with the Environment Agency and Devon County Council Highways and Flood Risk teams to address local issues.
Looking ahead to 2026
This winter, we will continue with tree planting, installing more leaky dams and attenuation ponds, and engage more landowners to expand nature-based solutions across the River Culm and its tributaries.
Want to get involved or learn more? Please drop us an email at hello@connectingtheculm.com
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