1

Westcountry Rivers Trust2014 review

Confluence

Contents What a difference a year makes 5

20 Years of action 7

Our aim 9

Protecting our rivers 11

Balancing our land use 13

Engaging people 15

Finance summary 2014 16

PresidentMichael Martin MBE

Trustees and Directors Charles Huntington-Whiteley (Chairman of the Trust) Adam Fox-Edwards (Chairman of the Board of Directors) Paul ArnottThe Lord ClintonLoudie ConstantineSir Simon DaySir David Hoare Bt Jenny Ingham ClarkDr Keith LancasterHenry LlewellynThe Hon Mrs George LopesThe Lord RoboroughRichard SimpsonDr Andy TorranceWilliam Wyldbore-Smith

Chief ExecutiveDr Laurence Couldrick

Company Secretary Kelly Sivorn

Independent Auditors Mazars LLP Chartered Accountants 2 Stinsford Road, Poole BH17 0NF

Registered OfficeRain-Charm House, Kyl Cober Parc, Stoke Climsland, Callington, Cornwall PL17 8PH

Registered Company Number: 06545646

Registered Charity Number: 1135007

© Westcountry Rivers Trust, 2015.

Cover Photo: Jo Neville

Welcome to the latest issue of the Westcountry Rivers Trust’s review, Confluence, and let me first thank you for your patience in getting this ready as the Trust has gone through an unprecedented period of delivery and change. Over the past three years we have delivered more than £10m worth of projects to protect our rivers, whilst undergoing considerable change in staff. Firstly, Dr Dylan Bright, our previous CEO, left the Trust in late 2013, joining South West Water to manage the development of their Upstream Thinking programme. Sadly, since then Dylan was diagnosed with cancer and has continued to battle the disease and our thoughts are with him and his family. Alongside this Lynne Hyland, our Finance Director, left in 2014. Like Dylan, Lynne has had a huge impact over the past 10 years on our ethos and success. Thankfully, Jonathan Bailey, who came from managing a team at the Environment Agency, was able to step in as CEO, and steer the Trust through this period of change. Then in early 2015 Jonathan left the Trust and the Trustees appointed me to continue building on the success of the Trust by standing on the shoulders of these giants.

As you may know, the Trust was first conceived in 1994, achieving charitable status in 1995, so we are 20 years old and what a 20 years it has been. I first became aware of the Trust in late 2001 when my now wife gained employment as a farm advisor under the Cornwall Rivers Project. I watched the work of the Trust with interest whilst writing up my Doctorate and after finishing my PhD managed to win a bid to develop a River Basin Degree course and formally join the Trust in 2003. Since then I have developed the Trust’s educational activities and helped to win and run over £15m worth

of projects, acting as both Dylan’s and then Jonathan’s right-hand man.

When the Trust formed in 1994 the Environment Agency, then the National Rivers Authority, was successful in addressing point source pollution in our rivers but the issue of diffuse pollution, coupled with migration barriers, invasive weeds and habitat loss meant that many of our West County rivers were still degraded.

The river water quality, which served as a litmus paper for the land it drained, was poor and the fish populations, which are key indicator species, were in decline. As a Trust we have achieved a huge amount since then and I would love to report that our rivers are clean and sparkling and our fisheries, and the habitats and species that support them, are in good health but I cannot. As the UK population has increased we have demanded more from our land and whilst we have started to address the local issues on our rivers the national and international drivers of cheap food, short term policies and global markets still remain. It is perhaps not surprising then that only 1 in 5 rivers in the UK achieve the Government’s ‘Good Ecological Status’ and these figures are getting worse as we uncover the true state of our rivers. Whilst this is a bleak picture, I believe we are at a turning point where the silo approach and ‘out of sight out of mind’ view is shifting gradually to a greater awareness of our environment. Whilst it is optimistic to think the driver behind this is enlightened self-interest, perhaps a more realistic view is that we are angry at the consequences of asking too much of our environment. Flooding, drought, pollution health scares, high water bills and food security are increasingly featuring in our news and our lives. However, irrespective of why we are taking a greater interest in our environment, this presents us with a great opportunity to connect with communities, so together we can enact real long-lasting change. Over the past five years, Catchment Partnerships, consisting of the people who work and live on our rivers, have been developing and, whilst still in their infancy, they represent a valuable way for us to engage people and garner support for our work. We all have a role to play in this. Whether it is playing, planning, protecting, restoring, farming, monitoring, regulating or advising. We must all pull together to bring our rivers to life.

Dr Laurence CouldrickCEO Westcountry Rivers Trust

What a differencea year makes

Dr L

aure

nce C

ouldrick

3

Over the last 20 years we have gone from strength to strength and have achieved a huge amount of long term change by delivering cutting edge projects. 15 years

Angling Passport scheme

Pioneering genetic marker system to identify

Salmon and Trout populations

eels

Major electrofishing campaigns on 4 large

river systems 4

Pioneereduse of Payments for

Ecosystem Services now included in international

literature

3,000

farm

ers w

orke

d with

a

nd gi

ven a

dvic

e

and

guid

ance

integrated managementfarm resource management plans written

1897

£5mInvested on 184 large

farm infrastructureprojects to reduce

diffuse polution

UK’s firstenvironm

entalreverse auction

for capital grants

children worked with via our wet feet campaign

over3000kmsof freshwater

habitats opened to

Protec

ting rivers

Balan

cing land

1994 - 2014 Twenty years of action

36

4k

mof

rive

r fen

ced o

ff

9

4

210

14technical fish passes

weir removals

obstructionsremoved

weir easements

eels

4

1,000

km

salm

on an

d se

a tro

utsp

awni

ngha

bita

tsop

ened

6Hosted and co-hosted

6 catchment partnerships

Degree Course developed and run on Sustainable

River Basin management

educational visits500

Pion

eere

d u

se of

Ecos

yste

m

Serv

ice

map

ping

as

a

n eng

agem

ent t

ool

salmon in theclassroom projects

40

Over 10,000 children worked with via our

wet feet campaign

Protec

ting rivers

Engaging people

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ACTING LOCALLY

Local on-farm and in-river based actionFor each river catchment in the West Country we want to provide a long-term river officer who can: Firstly, act

as a point of contract for local groups and partnerships (e.g. River Associations, Wildlife Trusts, businesses, etc.); Secondly, survey and monitor their local river to identify local pressures and barriers; and Thirdly,

identify funding and manage work to remove these pressures. This local approach comes out of the eight catchment partnerships that have developed across the West Country but has to be delivered at a

smaller operational scale to generate real local change.

River ExeJohn Hickey has been working closely with several groups across the River Exe over the past

15 years, delivering land management advice to over 200 land managers and protected 50km of river bank through fencing, coppicing and in-river works.

Protecting rivers

Restoringfreshwater

habitats andspecies

THINKINGGLOBALLY

National government-policy based action

Whilst it is vital to address local problems the Trust is adamant that we have a responsibility as one of the largest rivers trusts to address the wider drivers operating across all our rivers. This includes: Land based national farming action, such as the simplification and improvement in the enforcement of environmental regulation; Urban based action, such as the adoption of sustainable drainage solutions across all planning decisions to remove clean water from sewers; River based action, such as catchment planning and river species action plans; and open data sharing and devolved funding to ensure efficient and integrated local targeting of resources.

WaterLIFE (funded by EC Life+) The Westcountry Rivers Trust is working with the national Rivers Trust and the World Wildlife Fund to embed local catchment planning and targeting of resources into National Policy and Guidance. Additionally, the project is promoting adoption by business through Corporate Social Responsibility and Payments for Ecosystem Services.

Engaging Reconnecting

their

Otter Exe Taw

Fowey

Ta

mar

D

art

Our aimto bring our rivers to life, from source to sea, for the benefit of all.

To do this webelieve that:

■ Restoration of river habitats and species must be done at a river basin scale;

■ Land use, which dictates river health, must balance environmental, societal and economic demands;

■ Engaging with our natural heritage using both science and common sense is the key to changing behaviour;

ACTING LOCALLY

Local on-farm and in-river based actionFor each river catchment in the West Country we want to provide a long-term river officer who can: Firstly, act

as a point of contract for local groups and partnerships (e.g. River Associations, Wildlife Trusts, businesses, etc.); Secondly, survey and monitor their local river to identify local pressures and barriers; and Thirdly,

identify funding and manage work to remove these pressures. This local approach comes out of the eight catchment partnerships that have developed across the West Country but has to be delivered at a

smaller operational scale to generate real local change.

River ExeJohn Hickey has been working closely with several groups across the River Exe over the past

15 years, delivering land management advice to over 200 land managers and protected 50km of river bank through fencing, coppicing and in-river works.

Balancing land useImproving the water leaving our land.

Otter Exe Taw

“Taking farmers from the Otter

to water treatment works has

really brought home their

impact on the environment”

“I’ve been working on and

around the Exe for 15 years and

am immensely proud of the

impact we’ve had”

“Working in partnership on

the Taw has been the key to

delivering the huge amount of

work over the years”

“The Dart is such a Beautiful

river both Annabel and I have

loved working in the area over

the past years”

“The Fowey provides most of

Cornwall with drinking water

and we must protect it for

future generations”

“The Trust is based in the Tamar

catchment and both Ross and I

work tirelessly to improve this

key river”

Fowey

Ta

mar

D

art

Peoplepeople with river

Yog

Ade

Olivia

Hazel

Giles

John

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Restoring freshwater

habitats and species

Protectingrivers 2014 saw some of our major river restoration projects coming to a close. The largest of these were the five Catchment Restoration Fund projects (funded by Defra and managed by the Environment Agency) to achieve improvements in the Water Framework Directive ecological status. The five projects were based in the Dart & Teign, South Cornwall, the South Hams, the Taw and the Axe & Exe and targeted predominantly areas where fish populations were degraded, phosphate levels were too high and where diatoms (microscopic organisms) indicated high levels of sediment.

ActionsEach project had detailed survey and monitoring programmes to target work and each partnership aimed to alleviate the problems by concentrating firstly, on in-river work:

■ 2 weir removals, ■ 10 elver passes, ■ 18 fish easements/passes, ■ 47 woody debris management, ■ 13 flow deflectors, ■ 25km of coppiced river bank, ■ 150 improving gravel sites - cleaning 131 and

augmentation 19. and secondly, land based work:

■ 83km of fenced watercourses, ■ 264 farm nutrient and soil reports, ■ 309ha of restoring and creating wetland ■ 172ha of woodland planting secured.

additionally, the projects also:

■ ran Redd count record training, ■ installed riparian interpretation boards ■ ran science days and catchment events, ■ delivered 9 Salmon in the Classroom events ■ ran a final conference attended by 200 people ■ electro-fished over 200 sites

Outcomes

Each project delivered case studies pre and post-investment monitoring to demonstrate the improvements of specific features, which coupled with the formal annual assessment of ecological status by the Environment Agency, as well as local improvements in fisheries returns, highlights the success of the projects in removing pollutants and increasing fish populations across all rivers.

Walla BrookElectrofishing results for 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 (EA & WRT) show that salmon fry numbers were absent from all sites on the Walla Brook. The Trust conducted an extensive habitat walkover and found a large woody debris/tree blockage was noted near the confluence. In early 2014 the debris blockage was removed and 1.6 km of carefully selected coppicing was completed. In summer 2014, WRT’s electrofishing surveys recorded salmon fry at all three sites on the Walla Brook for the first time.

River TawAdrian Dowding has been working in partnership with the River Taw Fisheries Association and the Environment Agency to remove over 40 barriers to fish migration across the river Taw over the past 7 years including Head Weir. So far they have improved access over 600km of spawning habitat.

‘Anecdotal evidence from Taw fishermen is very encouraging. More salmon and sea trout are being seen (and caught) higher up the river and our stocks seem to be spread more evenly through the system. This year’s rod catch numbers are expected to show further improvement, especially since we have had good water conditions which look likely to continue right to the end of the season’ Alex Gibson, RTFA.

Wider economic impactsAlongside the benefits to complying with the Water Framework Directive the improvements in water quality and fish populations had wider economic impacts. The Trust commissioned an independent economic assessment of each project, which found that for every £1 spent the project injected £3.46 into the local economy predominantly through fishing, local tourism and farm income.

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Improvingthe waterleaving

our land

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Collective potential loss over the winter

2014/20152013/20142012/20132011/20122010/2011

Ave

rage

Nitr

ogen

loss

kg/

ha

Collective loss of Nitrogen to the environment fromfield testing sites 2010 to 2015 following nutrient advice

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Collective potential loss over the winter

2014/20152013/20142012/20132011/20122010/2011

Ave

rage

Nitr

ogen

loss

kg/

ha

Collective loss of Nitrogen to the environment fromfield testing sites 2010 to 2015 following nutrient advice

Balancing land use 2014 was a crucial year for the Trust and witnessed the culmination of Upstream Thinking (UST) as one of our flagship Payments for Ecosystem Service projects. Upstream Thinking is a South West Water funded initiative delivered in part by Westcountry Rivers Trust to improve raw water quality in strategically important catchments before abstraction and treatment for drinking water. The majority of interventions within the project, were in the Tamar and Fowey and involved advice and farm-yard infrastructure grants to reduce diffuse pollution and improve on-farm management of resources. These were enshrined through robust contractual and deed agreements to ensure longevity and the use of best practice.

Actions

Work was carried out predominantly on the Tamar, Otter and Fowey catchments, mainly comprising of arable farming, numerous dairy and beef farms with high livestock densities (where manure and slurry produced from cattle can increase phosphate and bacteria (Faecal coliforms) in nearby streams and rivers). This can prove costly to remove and also has a significant impact on river ecology leading to poor conditions for algae, plants invertebrate and subsequently fish. Individually they are not classed as pollution or illegal events, however when combined they lead to elevated levels of nutrient entering ditches, stream and rivers causing water quality to deteriorate.

The works delivered over this project to address these issues included 300 farm resource plans, 50km of ditch and river fencing, 144 crossings points and alternative water and 184 yard projects, such as overwinter cattle housing, slurry management and clean and dirty water separation. Additionally, the project team also delivered 548 soil tests and 131 manure/nutrient tests to improve resource management.

“Soil is a crucial resource and 1 cm of topsoil can take over 500 years to form but can be lost over a single storm, leaving a field unable to produce future crops, mud on roads, increased drinking water treatment costs, degraded river habitats and additional harbour dredging.”

Ross Cherrington - Tamar farm advisor

Additionally, the projects on the Fowey were selected using the UK’s first reverse auction. This additional element was funded by Defra and the Trust worked in partnership with the University of East Anglia to allow farmers to bid for projects that would improve water quality. Both this element of the project and the wider Payments for Ecosystem Services nature of the project have been written into national and international guidance and best practice case studies alongside global examples.

Outcomes

Whilst monitoring of the project outcomes was not initially included in the project the Trust was able to lever additional funding to review the benefits of the scheme as well as link the projects to the Trust’s ongoing monitoring programmes.

Otter catchmentThe Trust gave advice, ran trials, workshops and a variety of grant-aided works are helping to reduce levels of nitrogen in groundwater. The issues facing groundwater are different and more complex to surface water issues, however successful trials have been undertaken using slow release fertilisers to reduce waste and contamination, along with differing cultivation techniques such as min till (non plough) and direct drilling when the seed is drilled directly into the soil after the previous crop has been harvested to reduce potential soil loss. (see graph on opposite page)

Caudworthy catchmentThe Trust was able to lever government funding via the Demonstration Test Catchment to evaluate the impacts of diffuse pollution advice and grants on water quality. One of the research projects evaluated the impact of fencing on pollutants to show that the fenced fields significantly decreased in river concentrations or feacal indicator organisms such as E. Coli. Further results are currently being assessed now significant post-restoration data is collected.

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Reconnectingpeople withtheir river

© Jiri Rezac

“I just wanted to feedback how impressed I am with the thorough and detailed content of the draft

report which I am sure will be helpful in focusing attention on the areas at

greatest need of improvement”Catchment partnership partner

Engagingpeople In 2014, engagement at the Trust encompassed a wide variety of activities, from school visits, workshops and conference presentations to printed and digital outputs including websites, multimedia and reports, aimed at both technical and non-technical audiences. These engagement activities were delivered through several key Trust projects, including the Catchment Based Approach, Upstream Thinking and the Catchment Restoration Fund projects, as well as projects delivered under Westcountry Rivers Ltd. In addition, Trust staff continued to deliver day-to-day engagement activities throughout all their work with farmers, fishermen, school children and the Trust’s many partner organisations across the region.

2014 saw the Trust develop significant capabilities in the design and delivery of state-of-the-art monitoring programmes and in the use of mapping and modelling to effectively engage with a variety of groups to gain consensus and target delivery. This included

■ Hosting or co-hosting six Catchment Based Approach partnerships in North Devon, South Devon, East Devon, the Tamar, East & North Cornwall and West Cornwall.

■ Providing evidence reviews for Tamar, North Devon, South Devon and East Devon. These have been used to facilitate discussion in catchment partnerships and build consensus.

■ Co-ordinating the Trusts monitoring and targeting work across the region (Examples opposite)

■ Adding to the now 60 videos on our YouTube channel, that have been viewed 28,000 times.

■ Increasing our social media presence, including 2000 followers on Twitter.

■ Delivery of 77 school events, workshops and conferences

■ Using data and monitoring to assess the health of rivers, target restoration efforts and to help local people gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities we face in protecting and restoring our natural environment.

WRT conference

At the end of 2014 the Westcountry Rivers Trust hosted a two day conference to celebrate our 20 year anniversary as well as the culmination of the projects that drew to a close and the partners that helped deliver them. More than 180 people attended the event and the message of integrated partnership action was spread far and wide. “As a long-time but now distant supporter of WRT (once based on the Tamar), now working on the chalk streams of Hants/ Wilts, I came away fuelled with ideas about how I might put together our own small, pilot project” Fisheries manager

Fingle Brook

Monitoring the impact of road run off from the A30 on the Fingle Brook - A network of six temperature, pressure and conductivity sensors were installed at key locations along the Fingle Brook. These were positioned to capture the influence of road runoff inputs on dissolved solids between upstream and downstream. Detailed spatial sampling showed elevated concentrations of metals, particularly lead, below road drainage inputs, with values above Environmental Quality Standards. The Trust is instigating remedial works focusing on creation of a drainage attenuation pond and flow regulation in the existing drainage gullies.

Investigating pH

The Trust undertook continuous monitoring in the upper reaches of the Upper West Dart River to determine pH conditions over the year. Our evidence suggests that low pH (below pH 5) conditions occur when rivers are in spate, and these pulses are likely to be pronounced following dry spells and there is a large body of literature reporting that exposure to these short events can have deleterious effects upon biota. The Trust is now working with the University of Plymouth to assess the impacts of remediation on biota.

Modelling and Mapping

The engagement team has been delivering a wide variety of modelling and mapping products to Natural England through two Diffuse Water Pollution Plans (Axe and Camel) and to the Catchment Partnerships through four individual catchment evidence reviews. These products were used to engage local communities and feedback included: “My first impressions are – wow, what a wonderful bit of work that will be so useful for the catchment partnerships. It’s so good!”

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Financial stability and good

governance

© Jiri Rezac© Jiri Rezac

© Jiri Rezac © Jiri Rezac

© Jiri Rezac© Jiri Rezac

Income from charitable activities

£2,455,588: During 2014 the Trust continued to deliver three major projects with corresponding income from these projects as follows: SWW funded Upstream Thinking project - £349k; EU funded Atlantic Aquatic Resource Conservation (AARC) project - £255k; and Environment Agency Catchment Restoration Fund projects - £1,608k. These are restricted income projects and together they constitute 90% of the Trust’s income from charitable activities and 86% of the Trusts’ total income (excluding the trading subsidiary).

Income from generating funds

£100,703: At £101k voluntary income represents only a small element of the Trust’s income stream, amounting to less than 4% of total income for 2014. This includes income from donations and is largely consistent year on year with the variance from the previous year being less than £1k. £284,093: This includes income from the Trust’s wholly owned trading subsidiary, Westcountry Rivers Limited (WRL). 2014 was another successful year for WRL whose income has been steadily increasing over the last few years to reach a high of £284k in 2014, an increase of £67k (30%) from 2013.

Finance summary 2014Thank you to all our supporters and funders

Expenditure on charitable activities

£2,964,482: Total resources expended by the Trust in 2014, excluding the trading subsidiary, were £3,010k and of this expenditure on charitable activities represents 98%. Continued delivery of the Trust’s three major projects resulted in expenditure as follows: SWW funded Upstream Thinking project - £447k; EU funded Atlantic Aquatic Resource Conservation (AARC) project - £257k; and Environment Agency Catchment Restoration Fund projects - £1,821k. Together expenditure on these three projects constituted 85% of the Trust’s expenditure on charitable activities and 84% of the Trust’s total expenditure (excluding the trading subsidiary). Expenditure on generating funds: £28,767: Costs of generating voluntary income have decreased by £7k (19%) from the previous year and represent less than 1% of the Trust’s total expenditure. £200,638: This includes expenditure by WRL which has increased by £72k (56%) from the previous year and is consistent with the increase in income.

Governance:

£16,962: Governance costs have remained consistent across 2013 and 2014 and represent less than 1% of the total resourc-es expended by the Trust.

Restricted Reserves:£734,388: Restricted reserves have decreased by £311k (30%) from the previous year-end. Expenditure in 2014 has required applying both current year income and utilising brought forward restricted reserves and the deficit primarily reflects the significant expenditure in the current year related to the Trust’s three major projects as noted above. The deficit for these projects is £313k.

Unrestricted Reserves £248,845: Unrestricted reserves have decreased by £56k (18%) from the previous year-end. Several of the Trust’s major projects came to an end in 2013 and 2014 and this required the Trust to invest some of its unrestricted reserves to deliver its’ charitable objectives and minimise the impact on delivery following a reduction in funding.

© Jiri Rezac

© Jiri Rezac

Catchment Management £1,331,483

Trading £284,093

Voluntary Income £100,703

Fisheries & Recreation £1,124,105

Trading £200,638

Generating Voluntary Income £28,767

Governance £16,962

Fisheries & Recreation £1,331,826

Catchment Management £1,632,656

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Support your riverPlease help us to protect your river by volunteering your time or by making a donation.

■ Your time helps us control invasive weeds, manage river banks or survey our rivers.

■ £100 allows us to test soil nutrients and reduce loss ■ £250 allows us to run a school event and get the teachers using their

local river. ■ £500 allows us to restore a gravel bed for spawning

You can donate by visiting: http://wrt.org.uk/support https://www.giveasyoulive.com/charity/wrt