We are delighted to share the responses to the questions that were submitted during the sixth Connecting the Culm forum. The event focused on the topic of nature recovery on the Culm and you can read all about the evening in our previous blog and view the speakers presentations in the Library.
Thank you to all who submitted questions during the evening. We have grouped the questions into themes, gathered responses from the speakers and shared them below.
1. Technical
How do we change people’s desire to see the river dredged and the water removed from the land?
The evidence is telling us that slowing water down in the headwaters (including temporary water storage on farmland and woodland) and then keeping water moving freely in built up areas is the most effective way of building resilience and reducing impacts on people and property, whilst also maximising benefits for wildlife, carbon and water quality. There are now increased incentives for land managers to temporarily store water on farmland & woodland and the Connecting the Culm Farm Adviser works closely with land managers to help co-design nature based solution schemes that fit into farm businesses.
What is a paleo channel?
Paleochannel means old channel. This could be an ox-bow lake created a few years ago, right through to a depression in the ground following the route of a braided river channel dating back to the end of the last ice age.
How do you put the stones back when a river has eroded through that level?
This is relatively simple. It is a case of assessing the right stone mix, and then dropping this and spreading it in the channel. Practical issues are costs and availability of material. Access to the river. Two approaches can be considered. One where we input what will be mobile stone in at a few places and let the river disperse this. We have to accept that this is mobile and so will need to be replenished time and time again. The other approach is to use a larger stone size range and build the bed up so that it is stable and not so mobile. This is a bigger construction cost and impact, but is then only done once.
If looking at ancient river systems to replicate now, how do you take account of more extreme events? When this was not around 1000s of years ago?
Extreme events have always been around. It is the frequency of this that is liable to change, and the changes between extremes (floods and droughts). The more resilient a system is, then the more it copes with all extreme conditions. Having a very well connected and active floodplain provides resilience to the river channel and its ecology.
- It spreads the pressure of the flood conditions out of the channel and across the floodplain.
- Where the channel is very shallow compared to the floodplain, then floodplain habitats are also more resilient to drought as the water table will be closer to the surface.
For agriculture, having flooded fields in the winter might reduce maximum productivity. However, over time this will be increasingly offset by the resilience of farming in extended drought periods through the provision of wet grazing.
People are scared of wolves, water & flooding- how do we bring back the floodplain?
We do need to change the societal values and views. Take lessons from George Orwell perhaps into our children’s stories, that we may need to be worried more about pigs that stand on two legs, and build houses, rather than the wild nature that wolves represent which are just doing their natural thing.
However, for the likes of the River Culm, where the floodplain has increase in depth over the last few hundred years, reactivating floodplains is complex. In places we might need to think about full or partial floodplain lowering. In other places, where this doesn’t cause problems, we might think about channel raising.
Response from Matt Holden
I think a lot of this is about change and change management. Developing small scale examples where we can show examples of how a functional floodplain works is important. These demonstration sites can then be scaled up as people come to learn how floodplains should function and how supporting this function can benefit society. For many of us, we have not seen natural or semi-natural river corridors ever, particularly in are heavily farmed landscapes in England. Getting a sense of how restoration can work, what it looks like and how it fits within the landscape is key.
‘Natural’ river examples - I’d love to take my children to examples locally of good/ natural river areas. Are these listed for people to access? This would be a great resource and schools could take kids there etc.
Response from Julian Payne
Five Fords is a great area for the River Culm. There are multiple channels, the channels are very shallow compared to the floodplain, and there are wonderful clean gravels. However, the location also includes areas where the river is not cutting down through the gravel layer, and the river is starting to actively erode the river banks and beds. So, it is a micro example of both conditions. Great wildlife there. Get someone to do RiverFly monitoring in the shallow stable gravels, and up in the deeper, less gravelly eroding sections. The children should then get to see a big change in the invertebrates present in each location.
5000 beavers in the Netherlands - what can we learn from there to allay fears about impacts and interactions on infrastructure?
Response from Matt Holden
The Netherlands are still learning themselves too and have a number of management practices to protect infrastructure. This includes protection for strategic ditches and dikes where they need to use mesh or stone to protect the banks. They also have raised areas/rafts for beavers during floods so they can seek refuge. Devon Beaver Project, Environment Agency and Natural England are engaged with partners across Europe to share learning and there is likely to be events in the future to discuss just this!
2. Development
Where are the developers? Why aren’t they funding this?- because housing development is part of the problem in helping nature to recover. Rapid house building- what is being done to encourage house builders to reduce runoff and increase biodiversity?
Response from Tim Youngs
The Connecting the Culm team are engaging with the Culm Garden Village and other developers, to build resilience into their plans. The developer and Mid Devon District Council have been receptive, but to some extent the statutory planning framework & processes can be a bit ‘weak’ in terms of being ambitious and innovative in terms of truly integrating resilience and nature recovery.
3. Land management
Sheldon area - we have ever increasing numbers of poultry farms which have huge roofs in a high rainfall catchment. Increased zoned water collects across roads, into ditches small tributaries etc. No planning is required for soakaways! This needs to be rectified.
We will follow up with Mid Devon District Council
What support and encouragement is there for landowners to build and encourage the slowing down of the river and reducing flood peaks?
The Landscape Recovery Scheme is the flagship Environmental Land Management Scheme and we now have projects on the Axe, Otter, Culm, Dart and Horner Water (Holnicote). The new SW12 ‘Making space for water’ payment under the Higher Tier is potentially a game changer too.
Response from Lucy Jefferson
Connecting the Culm currently have capital grants available to landowners to pay for a wide variety of nature based solutions on their land. At present this funding is via the Devon Resilience Innovation Project and is concentrated in 6 sub catchments of the Culm Catchment; Hemyock, Culmstock, the Weaver, the Ken, Halberton and the Lyner. For information and/or a site visit please get in touch via the website.
Response from Matt Holden
The January announcement from Defra on the new ‘Premium Payment’ options under Countryside Stewardship could be a really interesting way for land managers to support reductions in flood peaks and restoration of river habitats. This couples with other CS options that can buffer water courses and support slowing the flow. Options like planting woodland in strategic locations and installing leaky dams is funded through the English Woodland Creation Offer would also be brilliant. Forestry Commission provide a layer on priority areas where natural flood management benefits could be achieved by woodland planting. Here, you receive a bonus payment for your scheme. At the Devon Beaver Project we are also working with land managers to identify the best ways to financially support the development of beaver wetlands and reducing downstream flooding. We are engaging both private companies and public bodies who could contribute to funding this in the future.
Discussions needed with NFU and Young Farmers Clubs
We are talking with these groups already.
How about rewilding to help with the biodiversity and flood reduction?
Indeed! That is what we are doing at Killerton, though we don’t refer to it as rewilding because for some people it is an emotive phrase i.e. they assume we are entertaining reintroduction of wolves et al! We do talk about making the estate ‘ready for beavers’, by which we mean increasing tree cover along the river, and dismantling some of the artificial drainage, such that beavers can then colonise and work their magic.
Response from Matt Holden
Supporting the development of natural processes is critical within our flood plain and river catchment systems. Ensuring the land can receive rainfall, store water and slowly release it is key. Equally these things need to be balanced with sustainable, economically viable farming. I think the key here is how and where we target interventions to best serve the objective. Strategic restoration in our headwaters (the SSSI at the top of the Luppitt is a lovely example) and along our river corridors could be a fantastic way to reduce flood peaks in towns and villages and contribute to reduce flooding of property.
4. Monitoring and training
How can we get Riverfly training for our groups of volunteers in Broadclyst?
The ‘official’ route is through the Riverfly website, which is worth browsing to find out more. However, they will probably forward interest to Fred Leach or Richard Horrocks as the local co-ordinators! We have noted this (and other) interest and are considering how best to proceed. It is also worth considering CSI surveys that include phosphate measurements. A search of ‘Westcountry CSI’ should provide details.
Do you need any more people to monitor the riverflies on the river Ken?
There is currently no Riverfly monitoring on the Ken so it would be helpful to have this catchment covered. See also the reply concerning Broadclyst (above).
5. Equality, diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and access
Is there a reason why all speakers were white males?
Very good question! We need to try much harder next time as we recognise that this is not diverse and does not reflect the audience and community.
It would be great to have women speakers and diverse backgrounds.
Response from Tim Youngs
Agreed and we will try harder next time. In the Blackdown Hills National Landscape, we have an EDI plan and are embedding this in all our work, its just taking a little bit of time and resource.
Why no mention of public access along the banks of the Culm? Out of sight, out of mind.
Access is one of our key objectives in our 25 year Blueprint. We are building access into project plans and have done a significant amount of work to improve people’s visitor experiences, either by providing information/ interpretation, improving access paths and organising events for all.
6. Celebrations and events
Can we have a River Festival?
Great idea! You may have seen this – Wye Valley River Festival – so perhaps we could plan a smaller version and develop over time. Please shout if you’d like to get involved with developing this idea.
7. Other
South West Water are sponsors of many ‘projects’ and are also the cause of serious pollution in the Culm and its tributaries. Is there a conflict of interest here?
Good point and we are working closely with South West Water through our Culm Water Quality working group.
Planning for sewage provision of new developments?
We have raised this with South West Water (see above).
Mid Devon District Council scrutiny committee on 18th March – rivers and seas quality and plans of the Environment Agency. Please see the Scrutiny committee report.
Thank you and hopefully people will note the scrutiny report (3 minute read).
So much to consider. How about a conference on river issues to delve deeper?
Response from Tim Youngs
Excellent idea? 18 month ago, we organised a ‘Making Rivers Better’ event Making Rivers Better – Blackdown Hills National Landscape and we could repeat something like that again if people are keen.
If you have any:
- Further questions or comments on the responses
- Or, if you’d like to follow-up with us, offer to get more involved in any aspect/s or discuss anything that’s troubling/ exciting you, then please get in touch!
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