Month: September 2022

One can’t help but be concerned at the news this morning that the new-look government is planning a review of ELMS, the UK farm subsidy scheme which will replace the EU’s CAP, “given the pressures on farmers, and the government’s aims of boosting food security and economic growth”.

Although a lot of good work has gone into ELMs nothing is beyond review, so this may not be the de facto existential disaster many conservationists are predicting. What is frustrating however, is the endless framing of this conversation about farming and nature as a binary choice between economic growth and ecological protection.

Both sides – if I can put it that way – are to blame for this. Conservationists too often make excellent the enemy of the good. Threatened by what they see as impractical, idealistic environmentalism, farmers can be reactionary and unwilling to take on new (in fact, old) and practical ideas about land husbandry.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other!

It is in fact perfectly possible to farm in a way that leaves space for nature, or to put it the other way round, it is perfectly possible to make space for nature whilst farming profitably and providing an invaluable service to society. (Jake Fiennes’ new book Land Healer is all about this pragmatic, conservation-minded farming: exactly why I was very pleased when the NFU asked Jake to represent farming on the CaBA Chalk stream restoration strategy panel: in fact his book wasn’t out when we developed the strategy, but I had met Jake and our ideas clicked.)

That’s also why we’ve been trying to develop / evolve, from the CaBA chalk stream group, a simple set of recommended rules for farming in chalk landscapes which we will put to Defra in mid November when we launch the implementation plan for the chalk strategy. With a review on the horizon, this could be timely.

Background

The CaBA chalk stream restoration strategy, published in October 2021, included a number of recommendations for simple rules for farming in chalk catchments.

The idea was to propose to the teams developing ELMs a small number of rules and incentives that would be:

• easy to follow

• effective

• practicable

• and would not adversely affecting the profitability of the farm business 

The reasoning was that a good combination of the above would generate much higher take up and could be easily be regulated. I live in the countryside. I know many farmers. I know many chalk streams and I have practical experience of the impacts farming has on those chalk streams. I am sure that most farmers would be more than amenable to simple, practical ideas that help chalk stream to flourish, so long as these ideas are grounded in the practicalities of farming and of trying to make a living against the headwind of all the bureaucracy and diverse pressures farmers are under.

As chair of CaBA chalk group I was recently invited to sit on Defra EEG+ working group meetings and the Water theme for SFI and ELM. So, I decided to try and improve the first set of ideas via a series of meetings but with farmers and land managers driving the discussion. My plan was to take these ideas to the Defra meetings, backed with the expertise of the farming community.

Thus far we have had one meeting with a number of farmers in Norfolk and I now have two more booked: in Wessex on the 12th October and in the Chilterns on the 26th October (organised with the help of the Wessex Rivers Trust and Chilterns AONB respectively). I’d also be very keen to hear from other farmers and would be happy, if time permits, to hold an online meeting as part of this process. Get in touch if you’re interested. Although I can’t say how influential the ideas will be, the more that farmers contribute to and shape them the better.

Focussing on sediment run-off and chalk streams.

The impact of farming on water quality in streams is a potentially complex area but I want to focus on sediment in chalk streams because sedimentation has a very big impact that could be largely addressed with some very simple interventions.

Chalk streams in their natural state are ‘gin clear’ with very little sediment, clean river gravels and low nutrient levels: all of which is important for the ecological health and abundance of the species of plants, invertebrates and fish typical of chalk streams.

Our modern landscape, however, and the way it is farmed and developed, generates a lot of sediment run-off. And chalk streams being such gentle rivers have very limited flushing capacity. Many of them are modified by weirs and mills and denuded by abstraction which only makes all of this worse. In short, sediment gets into the river and it can’t get out, causing a significant negative impact on the ecology, by swamping out and homogenising habitat, filling the spaces in the gravel bed, or cloaking the bed of the river in particulate matter to which are attached phosphorus and all sorts of other toxic chemicals.

A 2005 English Nature Geomorphological Appraisal of the River Nar included a really good study of the ways sediment runs from farmland into a chalk stream. The report showed that fine sediment comes from:

• Arable fields – especially when they are recently ploughed.

• Pig units – there were increasing numbers in the valley, at the time (there are still many) some on steep land, close to the river.

• Road-side verges – especially when they are crushed each winter by farm vehicles too large for the roads they are driven down: this is a worsening problem.

• Dirt tracks – especially where these join up with the road network or run directly to the river.

• Aggregate works – from the exposed landscape around the works and from the road network servicing the works.

And that sediment enters the river via:

• Road crossings – where road drains discharge into the river.

• Footpaths, tracks and fords – where they cross the river.

• Intersections – of the dry valley network with the main river.

• Drains and ditches.

• IDB pumping stations and drains.

• Tributaries.

The important thing is this: in a chalk landscape points of sediment ingress are quite localised, but the area of origin can be broad. This is the case on most chalk streams, though the mixed geology chalk streams do get more surface run-off and chalk streams with livestock which graze to the river’s edge will also acquire sediment from damaged river banks. Urbanised chalk streams will also receive more diffuse surface run-off.

CaBA CSRG recommendations for farming rules in chalk catchments – DRAFT

Based on the above we have developed a set of simple rules / recommendations that could make a massive difference and which wouldn’t have to negatively impact the farming business. Sure, they’re are bit more bother than no bother at all, but there’s no real reason why these ideas couldn’t be adopted.

It’s also worth saying that there is an enthusiasm amongst the farmers I have spoken to for a level playing field: there is real concern and frustration expressed by farmers who go to extra effort to do the right thing only to find a neighbour not bothering. Therefore the idea of some very basic but compulsory rules appears to be well supported.

These ideas, as said, will be refined over two further meetings before being submitted by CaBA CSRG to Defra.

Basic rules

Compulsory basic standards for all farms in chalk catchments (could be trialled in the first instance via the CaBA CSRG flagship catchment restoration projects?)

• A farm-based site-specific soil and run-off audit and risk map, focussing on topography, gateways, and pathways from field to stream

• Compulsory buffer strips at high-risk leakage points (lateral width based on scale of risk according to the audit) designed to minimise escape of sediment on to pathways that lead to a chalk stream

SFI

As above plus …

• potentially higher impact farming such as outdoor pigs, carrots, parsnips, beet, maize, asparagus and potatoes: a 10-metre buffer around the full the perimeter of the field, but wider (up to 25 meters, say) at high-risk egress points (based on scale of risk according to the audit, while the areas of greater width can by offset by a commensurate area reduction along the low-risk boundaries)

• cover crops on maize fields (especially on sloped land)

• for outdoor pig units, a grass ley should be established before pigs are turned onto the land. Pig units should also not be sited on sloped fields or where the topography might increase the risk of run-off

• for other arable crops a 5-metre buffer where cultivated land runs alongside any ditch which leads to a stream, widening to 10-meters where cultivated land runs alongside any chalk stream itself (note that buffer strips preclude fertilisers, manures, pesticides, livestock)

• noting that later versions of SFI will include capital grants, recommend capital support for the relocation of gateways and crop pads from the high-risk locations as identified in the audit to lower risk sites

• adapt plough or cultivation patterns to minimise run-off in the infield high-risk areas as identified in the audit

• cover crops over all infield high-risk areas (based on levels of risk not just % of coverage)

• permitted crop-lifting and muck spreading periods set by a red / green traffic-light system based on localised 5-day weather forecasts? This system is used in Canada.

Local and Landscape Nature Recovery

Ideas to be developed could include: 

Infield

• cover crops 75 – 100%

• zero or minimal till 75 – 100%

• infield grass buffer strips running perpendicular to slope

• green swales runnings through field dips

• restoration of hedges, especially those running perpendicular to slope

• restoration of woodland

• restoration of ponds

Riparian and in-river for higher level offers

• restoration of lateral connectivity between the chalk stream and floodplain designed to allow riparian & floodplain inundation above Q10 flows (for example): this should be achieved by restoring natural river bed to floodplain ratios (ie by infilling dredged stream beds) and NOT by impounding the stream

• restoration or recreation of lost or relic meanders patterns 

• restoration of spring-line calcareous fens and flushes including infilling or blocking historic drainage and ditching networks

• restoration of wet woodland and riparian meadow by stepping back farming – except extensive grazing by suitable livestock – from the edge of stream

Note: throughout the discussion the group returned again and again to the need for chalk stream farming advisors to work with farmers on everything from the run-off risk mapping to the development of restoration ideas / opportunities. This is something that could be rolled out via the CaBA flagship restoration projects via the river trust network?

Incentivising hard to reach growers to support Local and Landscape Nature Recovery:

It was recognised that for proposals to have greatest impact they must be widely taken up across catchments. Collaboration was a common theme during the meeting, and farm clusters were identified as a potential mechanism to drive collaboration and engagement. A suggestion was put forward that payments for carrying out the proposed actions could attract a premium if they were obtained via a cluster group or similar (or standalone) initiative. However, this might not be feasible in areas where no cluster groups exist, putting some farmers at a disadvantage. It could also present new problems / cost / administrative burden?

Our new Prime Minister mentioned chalk streams at a hustings in Cheltenham earlier in the summer and in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph she cited a problematic lack of investment (which she aims to change) in large infrastructure projects such as reservoirs.

All this is good news, suggesting the new look government will take seriously the protection of our precious chalk streams and not make the mistake – as has often been made in the past – of regarding economic growth and ecological protection as mutually exclusive. Chalk streams have been waiting a long time for the protection and investment which is due if we are not to continue as dreadful hypocrites, unable to look after the natural wonders on our doorsteps.

Yes indeed, we need reservoirs: in the Fens and Lincolnshire, in Kent, Hampshire and the Thames basin, reservoirs would facilitate schemes which could protect public supply and ease the burden of over-abstraction – and this year must surely have shown what a burden it is. But it is worth remembering how long it takes to navigate the inevitable public enquiries that surround reservoir schemes, let alone build them. If we rely on reservoirs alone, we will be waiting a while. I photographed the bone-dry River Beane (above) in 2007, 2017 and now again in 2022 and I’m not sure how many more times I want to do that.

To deliver an effective, simple scheme guaranteed to build resilience of supply and to facilitate the ecological restoration of our precious chalk streams, our new Prime Minister, the new-look government and the new environment minister should (as well as lighting the touch paper on longer-term planning) urgently catalyse a more timely suite of schemes along the lines of a national grid for water resources. Below is a short paper which I hope may have found its way to a desk at Defra. If not, I post it here, just in case …

A national grid for water resources.

The restoration of chalk streams around London should be the ecological flagship at the heart of a more fundamental reform of water resource infrastructure in England and Wales and the creation of a ‘national grid’ for water supply which imposes inter-regional transfers onto our currently siloed and fragile supply network.

The south east of England has a high (and growing) population and a comparative shortage of water, especially in drought years. 

The south east is currently dependent on reservoirs filled from the River Thames and groundwater abstraction from storage in natural aquifers. 

However, the Thames reservoirs cannot be reliably refilled in dry winters. This runs counter to the mistaken popular perception that we only need to build more storage: there is already more storage than supply in the south-east during the problematic 18-month droughts, which include dry winters.

Groundwater aquifers, on the other hand, are already over-developed and the degree to which they are exploited causes significant ecological damage, particularly to chalk-streams, many of which are currently dry or very low (August 2022).

Fundamentally, the South East of England needs “new water” because not enough falls from the sky relative to the number of people and the needs of an already damaged environment.

By far the quickest way to achieve this is through inter-regional transfers from wetter and less populated parts of the country. For example, average annual rainfall per capita in the south-east of England is a fifth of that in Wales (assuming SE England = 19096 km2 / 800mm ave rainfall / 9.2 million people and Wales = 20779km2 / 1500mm ave rainfall / 3.2 million people).

The potential of inter-regional transfers (to supply water to the south east from Lake Bala in Wales) was first proposed by a Hertfordshire miller, John Evans, in the 1870s. It resurfaces as an idea every time there is a severe drought and then gets forgotten again till the next time.

More recently, however, the need for inter-regional transfers was firmly identified in the 2016 Water UK report: ’Water Resources Long-term Planning Framework’.

The role of inter-regional transfers is now a key component of the emerging National Framework for water resources and specifically WRSE’s draft plan which proposes that inter-regional transfers are used to move water from the wetter west to the dryer south east, including options such as Severn to Thames Transfer, repurposing the Grand Union Canal to transfer recycled water from the River Trent to the South East as well as potential options for transfers from the west country. 

However, the National Framework timetable proposes that water demand management (water efficiency and drought measures) and leakage reduction will close the largest part of the supply demand imbalance through to 2050. 

Shrinking demand through water efficiency is a vital measure, but offers uncertain results, while the already existing shortage of naturally available water in the Thames valley (as evidenced by the current drought) will become more pronounced if demand grows or if demand management proves a hard nut to crack.

Delaying the use of inter-regional transfers until after 2050 also delays the restoration of flows to the chalk streams which depend on over-exploited aquifers (and thus risks more and more headlines about dry rivers).

Severn to Thames Transfer

A transfer of water from the River Severn to the River Thames could yield in the order of 100 Ml/d, (in itself enough to restore close-to-natural flows to all the Chilterns and Hertfordshire chalk streams) requires zero inter-company trading and is deliverable in the short term.

With support from Vyrnwy, the Severn-Thames transfer could provide up to 500 Ml/d of yield for Thames Water and other water companies in the South East. 

The draft WRSE regional plan indicates that the Severn to Thames transfer could potentially be implemented by 2033.

Minworth and the Grand Union Canal

A complementary option that amounts to the same principle of moving water from Wales to the south east involves the recycling of highly-treated effluent from Birmingham’s Minworth water recycling centre, transferred to the WRSE region via the Grand Union Canal. 

The Minworth GUC transfer has a potential yield of at least 100 Ml/d (potentially higher given the dry flow from Minworth is 420 Ml/d) via the Ground Union Canal.

The draft WRSE regional plan indicates that the Minworth GUC transfer could potentially be implemented by 2035.

Both of these options bring new water into the south east region and would allow ALL of the abstraction reductions needed to restore naturalised flow to the iconic chalk streams of the Chilterns and Hertfordshire.

Chalk Streams First

These abstraction reductions in themselves also – counter intuitively – offer water resources options because they do not involve a total net loss to supply. A drastic reduction of groundwater abstraction in the chalk hills would allow groundwater levels and thus river flows to recover: in the Chalk Stream First scheme the aquifer remains a “reservoir of water” while the means of delivery becomes the chalk stream itself, with water taken for lower down the system after the natural eco-system has benefitted. Hence chalk streams first. 

The flow recovery brought about by abstraction reduction is another strategic resource option amounting to approx 80% of the abstraction reduction averaged across the full year (flow recovery is lower in summer than winter, ranging between 30% and over 100%), using the London reservoirs as storage, and the Supply 2040 pipe network to return water to those places formerly supplied by groundwater abstraction.

Chalk Streams First +

Moreover if the problematic groundwater abstractions in the chalk tributaries are wholly or partly replaced with groundwater abstractions in the lower valley (an idea added to the proposal by Affinity Water) where they will have a much lower ecological impact, then there is no net loss to supply and ALL of the surface water flow recovery becomes available as “new water” in the same category as the STT and GUC water. This could yield up to 80 Ml/d averaged through the year. 

Chalk Streams First offers the opportunity to put a flagship ecological restoration of England’s iconic chalk streams at the heart of the development of a national grid for water, and inter-regional water supply infrastructure which would, for the first time in history, move water from the wetter west and Wales, to the overstretched and dry London and the south east.

Let’s deliver that!