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Taw River Improvement Project – Year 2 Newsletter mmmmmmProject Manager – [email protected]
The Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) has been managing the Taw River Improvement Project on behalf of the project partnership. The project is funded through the Catchment Restoration Fund to deliver improvements in ‘Ecological Status’ across the catchment under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). PROJECT OUTLINE The total project budget is £1.86 million and is co-‐run between the North Devon Biosphere Reserve and the WRT and covers the Taw catchment. It includes a large partnership including paid partners (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West, Silvanus Trust and Devon Wildlife Trust) and supporting partners (River Taw Fisheries Association, Tarka Country Trust, Natural England, Mole Valley Farmers, Environment Agency, South West Water, North Devon District Council, Communities Living Sustainably and Exeter University). The timeline for the project is 2.5 years, ending on the 31st of March 2015. THE RIVER TAW The river Taw is one of the South West’s most beautiful and culturally iconic rivers, but it does have its problems, both current and historic, which limit its ability to function naturally.
To address these problems the project is split into three parts and is managed through four sub-‐groups linked by the Project Advisory Group, which is made up of all partners:
1 – Data & Surveying Responsible for reviewing past data and investigating the reasons why the rivers fail ‘good ecological status’ under the WFD.
2 – Fisheries Management Responsible for managing the weir removal and fish easement projects as well as fisheries management. 3a – Land Management (Agriculture) Responsible for agricultural advice and fencing grants as well as nutrient and soil tests. This group links with the Biodiversity group to ensure integration on the ground
3b – Land Management (Biodiversity) Responsible for biodiversity advice, woodland mapping and wetland management as well as surveying for Fresh Water Pearl Mussels
FUTURE DEVELOPEMNTS The project team is working with the North Devon Biosphere Reserve and the Nature Improvement Area, and linked to the North Devon Catchment Based Approach, to develop future projects and proposals. The first year and a half of this project has seen a huge amount of work delivered with a considerable amount contracted and due to be completed this summer. The partnership is keen to see this continued and to capitalise and build upon the experience and momentum gained in this and neighbouring project.
Core TRIP water body work areas
YEAR 2 NEWSLETTER TRIP
Taw River Improvement Project – Year 2 Newsletter mmmmmmProject Manager – [email protected]
1 – Data & Surveying The Data and Surveying sub-‐committee are investigating two of the most prevalent WFD failures stopping water bodies on the Taw from reaching ‘good ecological status’ – too much phosphate and too few fish. The Reasons For Failures (RFF) database does not have enough information to determine the scale of these failures nor apportion the source adequately. To address this the TRIP research partnership WRT, EA, NE, Rothamsted Research North Wyke and University of Plymouth have been running a series of modeling, monitoring and surveying mini programmes including:
• An assessment of historic data (WRT) • Modeled information including SAGIS and ECM+ (WRT) • Overview of EA evidence and investigations (EA) • Phosphate apportionment (North Wyke) • Phosphate in channel sediment (University of Plymouth) • Bioavailability of sediment Phosphate (University of Plymouth) • Diatom surveys (University of Plymouth) • Trytophan/OBA/Turbidity (WRT) • Sediment Tracing (North Wyke) • Organic Matter Tracing (North Wyke)
The aim of these mini research programmes is to provide the evidence needed that the actions undertaken under the project are effective but more importantly to inform future work. This could include working with septic tank owners, working with South West Water to improve sewage treatment works or involving farmers in monitoring their effects on the river to reduce nutrient loss. On 19th September 2013 the TRIP research partnership delivered a SCIENCE DAY to showcase some of the evidence for catchment scale restoration and reasons for failure. The day was a chance for local people and interested parties to hear about some of the research and monitoring work that is going on within the catchment to improve our understanding of the reasons why some sections are failing good ecological status. After the presentations the Trust demonstrated electrofishing and invertebrate kick sampling next to the recently removed North Wyke weir. The day was an outstanding success with many glowing comments. ‘It is great to see the number of research partners who have engaged, and I was just astonished at the diversity and quantity of information (or was it data?!) that has been collected around my “patch”. I was a little alarmed when our bridge featured in a slide, and thought our septic tank might be next!!!’ – Mike Moser, Chair of the Torridge Nature Improvement Area. All power point slides are available on the Westcountry Rivers Trust slide share website: http://www.slideshare.net/NickWRT/taw-‐river-‐improvement-‐project-‐science-‐day Videos of each presentation are available to watch on the WRT you tube site: https://www.youtube.com/user/WestcountryRiversTV/videos
Taw River Improvement Project – Year 2 Newsletter mmmmmmProject Manager – [email protected]
2 – Fisheries Management The Fisheries team is managed by Westcountry Rivers Trust and includes the River Taw Fisheries Association and the Environment Agency. This partnership has been in place for several years and the Taw River Improvement Project builds upon the Taw Access over Weirs project that saw several major weirs removed including Head Weir on the Mole that was replaced by a rubble ramp. Within this project the group is tackling barriers to migration as well as improving habitat through first surveying the tributaries and secondly, where appropriate, investing in selective habitat management. In May 2013 the Trust removed the weir at North Wyke (see right) and re-‐profiled the banks as well as re-‐seeding the bank with a natural seed mix. The area has now vegetated over and during recent floods the gravel riffle sections have naturalized. Fish can now access this section of the river into the upper Taw. Electrofishing will be carried out after 2013/14 winter run to compare fish populations to before the works were carried out. The fisheries team have also contracted up the remaining project weir work, which includes easements on Rashleigh weir, North Tawton and North Molton. Together with the Environment Agency’s work on Colleton weir this will open up significant access to upper catchments. Alongside this access work the team is contracting coppicing work, removing debris dams (see below), cleaning gravels and securing coarse woody as a way to improve the newly accessible spawning habitat.
The team is also planning walk over surveys of the catchment to ensure all barriers have been dealt with as well as feed into the North Devon Catchment Partnership.
Taw River Improvement Project – Year 2 Newsletter mmmmmmProject Manager – [email protected]
3a – Land Management (Agriculture) The Agriculture advice team is managed by Westcountry Rivers Trust and includes the South West Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, Natural England and the Environment Agency. The group links and shares sub-‐committee meetings with the Biodiversity group to ensure integration of resources and ensure effective management on the ground. So far the team has contracted over 22km of fencing, 31 drinking troughs and 15 gateways to protect the river from cattle poaching and direct defecation. Of this 13.9km of fencing has been completed (see below) and the total amount of grants given equates to £100k with £40k of match funding coming from the farmer. The team has also delivered 42 farm plans in total including 19 nutrient management plans and 40 soil tests. Additionally the team have delivered 20 Catchment Sensitive Farming visits.
3b – Land Management (Biodiversity) The Biodiversity advice team is managed by North Devon Biosphere Reserve and includes the Silvanus Trust, Devon Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Environment Agency and the Tarka Country Trust. Over the last financial year they have:
• Targeted over 250 woodland owners with a mail shot campaign • Completed 36 advisory visits to woodland owners and assisted with 8 woodland planting grants • Run two ‘Taw woodmeet’ events, which attracted 25 and 30 attendees. • Managed and restored 265ha of County Wildlife Site (CWS) and 25.28ha of new non-‐CWS. • Contracted 9 capital grant projects restoring and managing culm grassland (£30k + £5k match)
Works include scrub clearance (see below), fencing, green haying and ongoing management • Contracted £43k worth of floodplain grazing marsh restoration and management works • Commissioned an extension to the Fresh Water Pearl Mussel survey
Additionally, the whole partnership have presented at 10 community events and worked with two student placements, who helped with the research and survey work. The team will be hosting a delivery day to mirror the science day in the winter-‐time as a way of celebrating and communicating the work achieved so far. Watch this space for a date!
