WaterLIFE Project - WRT Final Report - June 2017

The

Partnership

The Tamar Catchment Partnership: Inception In 2012, the Tamar Catchment Partnership worked together through a series of workshops to collaboratively discuss and explore the issues and opportunities present across the catchment, using an ‘ecosystem services’ approach. More than 100 individuals representing over 30 organisations and businesses attended and helped to create a shared understanding and subsequently shared vision for the Tamar catchment (as described in ‘The Tamar Plan’).

The Tamar Catchment Partnership adopted a stakeholder-led ‘ecosystem services’ approach to create its catchment plan. This involved the host organisation (Westcountry Rivers Trust) working with stakeholders to identify areas within the catchment which play, or have the potential to play, a particularly important role in the delivery of clean water and a range of other benefits (services) to society.

Only when these areas had been identified was it then possible to identify groups within society who benefit from the services they deliver and to create mechanisms through which these beneficiaries can contribute financially to support or enhance their delivery.

Where beneficiaries already make financial contributions, the aim must be to ensure that these contributions are spent as cost effectively as possible to derive the greatest achievable environmental outcomes.

Through this process the stakeholders have developed; (1) a shared understanding of the pressures affecting ecosystem service provision in the catchment, (2) a shared vision for a catchment landscape with a blend of environmental infrastructure that may be able to deliver all of these vital services optimally in the future and (3) a clear Tamar Partnership Members

understanding of what is currently being done to realise this vision and what additional actions may be required to bring it to full reality.

Following an initial open meeting attended by 55 local stakeholders in March 2012 to launch the Tamar Plan Initiative, 7 working groups (comprising 68 participants in total) were convened to examine the different elements that required consideration for the creation of the plan.

Each of these work-groups met three times during 2012 (totalling over 65 hours of dialogue) to work through a range of objectives, including: water quality; water quantity; spaces for wildlife; carbon sequestration; recreation, leisure & culture; point-sources of pollution, and education, engagement and local food.

The stakeholders engaged in 2012, worked together to develop a common understanding of the current and future issues relating to ecosystem service provision from the Tamar Catchment.

However, despite the great progress achieved, there was still a great deal of work to be done to realise the new shared vision and so we then created an action plan designed to produce the ecosystem services, social and environmental outcomes we hoped to deliver.

Polson Bridge on the Tamar

A substantial programme of Priority Actions were identified by the Tamar Catchment Partnership in 2012/13 and several of these were either realised directly or facilitated by the EU-funded WaterLIFE

Project between 2014 and 2017. In this report, we describe the work that has been undertaken under the auspices of the Tamar Catchment Partnership as a result of the WaterLIFE Project.

Increased stakeholder engagement to grow the partnership and reconnect people with the natural environment - especially water Continued delivery of catchment management delivered in partnership with South West Water, including contribution to 2014 Business Plan Project development in Flood Risk Management target areas with a focus on community engagement Collaboration with local food producers and assessment of local supply chains ‘water stewardship local’ Develop a Tamar fisheries management and river restoration action plan Initiate a soil carbon study with Tamar Organic Group

Tamar 2020 Catchment Vision

Ecosystem Services Mapping An Evidence Review for the Tamar

The Westcountry Rivers Trust first began to develop a method for undertaking stakeholder-led spatial visualisation of ecosystem services provisioning areas across a catchment landscape in 2011 for the Interreg-funded WATER Project. Development continued in 2012 in the Tamar Pilot before CaBA funding was obtained in 2014 to further develop the methodology. WaterLIFE gave us the opportunity to use this refined methodology to create a Tamar Ecosystem Services Evidence Review.

During this participatory process, all of the data and evidence relating to environmental infrastructure and ecosystem services provision for the area of interest are collated and scrutinised.

Once the evidence has been evaluated, the partnership then works to develop a series of conceptual models or ‘rules’ which can be used to define areas of the catchment most likely to play a critical role in the provision of the different ecosystem services.

This process achieves a number of critical outcomes.

1. It allows the stakeholders, who are from a variety of backgrounds and who initially have highly diverse levels of technical knowledge, to develop a shared conceptual understanding of the issues that may be affecting their catchment and of where the priority and opportunity areas for the delivery of catchment management interventions may occur.

2. The process also allows the stakeholders in the catchment partnership to develop a shared language with which they can discuss the problems in the catchment, where they are occurring and how they may best be overcome. The mapping process is first and foremost a conceptual framework to stimulate and facilitate the discussion and to help stakeholders visualise spatially the pressures and opportunities across their catchment.

3. The process also assesses what interventions are already being delivered in the catchment, how they are funded and where there may be deficiencies in this provision. The individual ecosystem service maps and the combined map of multifunctional areas are then used to facilitate the targeting, planning and delivery of actions in the most integrated, balanced and cost-effective manner.

View full Evidence Review - www.tinyurl.com/yaedftq4

The Tamar Catchment Action Plan During the WaterLIFE Project a complete review of the Partnership’s aspirational project activities was undertaken and the Tamar Catchment Action plan was created. Actions were then discussed and prioritised by the Partnership Steering Group and through consultation with the wider partnership before the highest priority were fed into a ‘project pipeline’ to be further developed.

The Tamar Project Pipeline is a working document designed to help the catchment partnership further develop ideas originating from the list of priority interventions and, as they are only outline ideas in a dynamic document, any new ideas or opportunities can and will be added as appropriate over time. It also provides a draft specification for the proposed projects that can be submitted to funders.

A core funding and delivery group representing the Tamar Partnership meets regularly to discuss these and other project ideas and to plan and implement

their development going forwards, pursue and investigate potential funding streams and adapt ideas as appropriate. Project ideas with the most backing amongst the Partnership are developed further, while others with less backing may be dropped or adapted as appropriate – in part this will be to reflect for example, current water quality status in waterbodies, coverage or duration of other similar projects etc. to ensure that funding is used to optimise results and benefits across the Tamar.

To facilitate the gathering of partner feedback on the Tamar Catchment Action Plan, the key elements of the evidence gathered and a collation of all past, present and future projects implemented or planned by the Partnership were also presented on the my-tamar.org website and using ArcGIS Online information sharing portal (see below). This online application allows the Partnership Steering Group to showcase the projects already been undertaken, to gather feedback on proposed projects and also allows members of the partnership to submit their own project ideas for consideration.

Since the creation of these resources as part of the WaterLIFE Project, the Tamar Partnership has successfully secured additional funding for a number of key projects, including: the Tamar 3-Rivers Project (see opposite page), the Tamar Soil Organic Carbon Study (see p32), the Minewaters Project and others.

tinyurl.com/yayzx3a5

The Tamar 3-Rivers Project The 3-Rivers Project (designed through WaterLIFE and funded by the EA - ÂŁ44,000) focused on three waterbodies in the Tamar Catchment; the Lumburn, Lower Tavy and Walkham. The project provided farm advice, small grants to farms, and information to homes which are not on mains drainage, with the aim of reducing diffuse pollution.

Identifying target areas To ensure the project was evidence-led and efficient, project partners worked together to identify key target areas for the delivery of farm advice, agricultural demonstration events and non-mains drainage awareness campaigns. Further to this, a tiered monitoring program was undertaken to collect baseline data, provide an overview of the catchment characteristics and to inform more detailed surveys. Data interrogation then helped identify non-mains drainage hotspots and priority areas for woodland creation.

Engaging people

Local volunteers contributed significantly to the identification of issues and target areas. Members of the Tavy, Walkham and Plym Fishing Club were trained in walkover techniques, while volunteers from the Tamar Valley AONB were trained to assess obstacles to fish migration. Targeted farm visits were undertaken to provide best practice advice and, where appropriate, this was supported by a small grant scheme to deliver small-

scale interventions. Farmer focused awareness events took place at key locations including the Tavistock Livestock Market, which brought forward expressions of interest in the project which could then be followed up. Demonstration events provided opportunities to raise awareness of specific issues, for example, in partnership with Devon Wildlife Trust, a demonstration of soil de-compaction equipment was combined with advice on soil assessment and management.

To tackle urban stressors, a range of information was collated and disseminated regarding non-mains drainage regulations and best practice, misconnections, the disposal of fats, oils and grease, and reducing water use. A non-mains drainage drop-in session was held, and parish councils, estate agents and caravan site managers were contacted to help pass on information on these issues. A poster campaign highlighted the issue at riverside hotspots.

Key outcomes...

26 farms visited; 3 visits to agricultural events and 3 farming demonstrations reaching 34 farmers; 3 farm grants completed to a total value of ÂŁ5,230; 100 non-mains drainage properties engaged; 7 community groups involved; 14 volunteers engaged; 14km of river walkover surveys completed; 285 metres of stock-proof fencing installed; half a hectare of native woodland planted.

My Tamar Campaign & Festival Over the summer of 2014, the Westcountry Rivers Trust and the Tamar Catchment Partnership, as part of the WaterLIFE project, hit the road on a summer tour to explore current feeling about what communities (schools, businesses and individuals) living in the Tamar catchment thought about their water environment.

People living and working in the Tamar catchment were invited to share their photos and stories about what the river meant to them and to create their own artwork inspired by the river and local environment.

The tour aimed to unite people living and working in the Tamar catchment, raising awareness about the resources the river provides and the health of freshwater ecosystems.

As well as raising awareness, the tour also aimed to inform and update people on activities delivered through the Tamar Catchment Partnership and the WaterLIFE project to improve the freshwater environment. Ultimately, awareness and engagement leads to behaviour change, where individuals, businesses and organisations are encouraged to take action and make small changes to make a collective difference to their river.

The summer public engagement tour culminated in the Tamar Festival which was held on the banks of the river at Cotehele Quay in early October. 2014.

The My Tamar Festival

The Tamar Festival was held on Saturday 10th October 2015 between 11am - 4pm at Cotehele Quay, a National Trust property on the banks of the river. The festival was organised along four key Tamar themes; the environment, arts & heritage, food & produce and recreation.

Members of the Tamar Catchment Partnership were invited to showcase projects and activities currently underway to protect and restore the river for future generations. Also on show was an array of local produce, artists and community groups based along the river, and attendees at the festival enjoyed live music, craft workshops, water quality testing demonstrations and a series of River Tamar talks throughout the day.

The objectives of the festival were:

• To showcase activities undertaken by the Tamar Catchment Partnership to protect and improve the river • Raising the general public’s awareness of the Tamar and the vital role it plays in their lives

• Attracting new community members, businesses and organisations with which to share information about, and garner support for, the WaterLIFE project and the Tamar Action Plan • Engaging community members, businesses and organisations in taking action to improve the freshwater environment • Building relationships with businesses in the catchment, so that we can work with them in the future.

These objectives fit into the wider WaterLIFE aim of building capacity amongst civil society through engagement activities so they are better able to contribute to the management of their water environment.

The My Tamar Stand at Port Eliot F

The My Tamar Stand at Plymouth F

The My Tamar Team on a bridge ov

Festival

Food Festival

ver the Tavy

My Tamar Campaign & Festival ...continued.

Festival Participants Typically, 110-140 would visit the Quay on a Saturday in October; but during the Festival 223 people were counted visiting just one area of the Quay and it was estimated that approximately 300 to 400 people attended the day altogether. Attendees included people living in the local area, families and representatives of organisations involved in the Tamar Catchment Partnership.

Outcomes

Our work under the WaterLIFE project has enabled WRT to expand the existing Tamar Partnership and start to engage more widely with people, businesses and organisations in the Tamar catchment that have the capacity to impact the health of freshwater ecosystems. The Tamar Festival was the first public engagement event of this type organised by WRT. Adding a public facing dimension to the partnership has built support amongst the community and this will allow us to engage further with additional businesses and organisations in the future.

• Over 40 new contacts made and added to the Tamar database who will now receive newsletters from us

• Recruitment of our first citizen scientists to help monitoring water quality in the Tamar • Widespread publicity in local media, including newspapers and magazines, as well as local radio (interviews with BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Cornwall and Radio Plymouth) • Possible recruitment of a BBC Radio Devon presenter as a citizen scientist.

For more information visit -

www.my-tamar.org/project/my-tamar-campaign/

Building on Success Overall, the Tamar Festival was considered a big success and feedback on the event was positive. The event was well attended by members of the Tamar Catchment Partnership and we also engaged many new members of the public, businesses in the Tamar catchment and recruited new citizen scientists. Since the Tamar Festival we have taken the lessons learnt and the inspiration from the event and undertaken similar initiatives in South Devon (above and far right) and in Somerset (right).

Educational Exhibit at Upper Tamar Lake Funded by WaterLIFE, WRT worked with The Stranger Collective design team to commission the design, build and installation of an educational exhibit to be displayed in the visitors centre café at the Upper Tamar Lake. This hugely popular visitor attraction in the headwaters of the Tamar Catchment is owned by one of the key partners in the Tamar Catchment Partnership, South West Lakes Trust, and was considered by the partnership as a public location in the catchment with one of the greatest potential audiences: A whole corner area in the café was made available for us to use, with a wall space of approximately 7m x 3m, and we worked with the site managers (SWLT) and the designers to create an exhibit that met a suite of key criteria: • The overall objective was to engage the public with a narrative based around the River Tamar and its surrounding landscape, which could include elements of science, history, natural history, stories & art;

• The design needed to incorporate the My Tamar brand developed for the Tamar Catchment Partnership; • We wanted to include a map of the River Tamar catchment to help people learn the extent of the catchment landscape and the course of the Tamar and its tributaries;

• We wanted the displays to have interactive features that would be engaging and more educational than just flat graphics or textual information;

• The displays were intended to appeal to as diverse an audience of possible and engage people of all ages, from small children to adults.

The WRT stand at the Countryman’s Fair 2016

‘Become a River Scientist’ to Westcountry CSI Recent years, largely facilitated by the WaterLIFE Project, have seen a significant increase in the adoption of ‘Citizen Science’ approach by Rivers Trusts, CaBA Catchment Partnerships and a variety of other environmental NGOs and civil society groups. Citizen science is an excellent way to engage and empower local communities and individuals to become stewards of their own water environment.

In 2014, as part of the WaterLIFE-funded My Tamar Campaign, the Westcountry Rivers Trust initiated its own citizen science programme. The scheme was launched at the My Tamar festival under the banner of ‘become a river scientist’ and received a very positive response from the local stakeholders who attended the event.

Following on from this initial success, the idea was picked up by a local BBC Radio Devon Presenter, Jo Loosemore, and she recorded a series on citizen science for her programme on Sunday mornings.

These were also very well received and we began

to recruit citizen scientists from across the Tamar Catchment and further afield.

In the following year, WRT sought further

funding to grow the scheme and especially to

create a digital platform/application for our volunteers to capture their findings. We initially used the Freshwater Watch platform for this, but then secured some funding from The Big Lottery Fund to support the creation of the Tamar Citizen Science Investigations (CSI) programme, which has now been expanded to become Westcountry CSI. Westcountry CSI now has over 100 members across the SW and has a bespoke website for them to submit their records. The approach has also been bolstered by additional projects, such as River Buffs, the Nature of Millbrook and River Keepers in South Devon.

Riverfly volunteers training

Westcountry CSI volunteers in training

A young Westcountry CSI trainee

Tamar Catchment Fisheries Action Plan: A Your Fisheries Pilot

In 2015, The Tamar Partnership, enabled by WaterLIFE funding, was invited to become one of the 10 initial ‘Catchment Fisheries Planning’ (CFP) pilots being undertaken under the Catchment Based Approach. This approach, which has now been rolled-out more widely as the ‘Your Fisheries’ programme, saw fisheries specialists from 4 pilot areas work with the Rivers Trust, Angling Trust, and Atlantic Salmon Trust to develop the concept of Catchment Fisheries Action Plans under the auspices of the catchment partnerships.

Approach The first action of the Tamar CFP Pilot was to call together local fisheries representatives and discuss how this could be developed going forward. There was an awareness that national programmes and plans will come and go and therefore we should create our own ‘bottom up’ local stakeholder forum to discuss and agree the issues raised.

The Tamar Fisheries Forum was created and has become the vehicle which has a) discussed actions and priorities on the catchment, b) agreed fisheries action plans, and c) called on guest speakers to obtain additional information on key topics.

identify problems, and this takes a ‘bottlenecking’ approach to understand the life-history bottlenecks in salmon and trout populations. The second framework is the red-amber-green ‘traffic light’ action framework developed by Ronald Campbell which classifies sub-catchments in ‘attack-defendrestore’ classifications. Experience with the TFF has shown us that these frameworks are readily

The proposals developed under this project follow 2 basic frameworks. The first framework is used to

An Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

understandable by the fisheries interests and therefore ideal action-orientated communications tools for project development and long-term delivery.

In order to deliver improvements in fisheries the conceptual framework above needed to be integrated into a collective action-orientated activity. A cyclical framework was proposed and accepted where the TFF would develop a shared vision, collect, interpret and develop evidence, and then take action based on this evidence. Once action had been undertaken this process would be re-undertaken in the light of the results of this action.

A weir on the River Tavy

Developing a Shared Vision

As a stakeholder lead initiative it was important that the first action of the TFF was to query the stakeholder group to discover pre-existing viewpoints. A TFF Workshop was convened and participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that explored their current views on fisheries management in the Tamar Catchment.

The stakeholder survey demonstrated a reasonably consistent level of knowledge and perception of the issues within the Tamar catchment. However it was apparent that more could be done to develop a shared understanding about the challenge faced.

A Tamar Fisheries Forum site visit

To meet this need, a review of pre-existing information was undertaken; including EA data, WRT data and past reports such as the Salmon Action Plan. The evidence was then used to classify issues as either: resolved, un-resolved or no longer applying.

Un-resolved issues were then taken forward and fed into the development of the Fisheries Action Plan.

As well as a data driven review it was apparent that a collective view could be developed by physically bringing together stakeholders and the issues with the river. Therefore a bus-tour of the catchment was organised, with multiple sites visited and expert interpretation of the issues these sites presented given to the stakeholder group.

It was identified that the Tamar was one of the few rivers in England with both an active fenced beaver trial and also unfenced and un-permitted beavers loose on the catchment. Therefore expert speakers from Southampton University and Devon Wildlife Trust we invited to describe their activities and research so local stakeholders could weigh the pro’s and cons of beaver reintroduction into the Tamar.

As it was unrealistic to expect all stakeholders to make frequent meetings a mailing list was set up to ensure the sustained involvement of stakeholders.

Creating the Action Plan

An electrofished brown trout

Once a shared vision had been established, all the evidence was collected and reviewed in a multistakeholder meeting including public, private and 3rd sector organisations and then combined into the final Tamar Fisheries Action Plan.

Once the actions had been agreed they were then prioritised using a red-amber-green system based on the current status of the various fisheries in the catchment.

You can read discover the details of the Tamar Fisheries Action Plan on the following pages, where the main actions and approach are described.

Tamar Catchment Fisheries Action Plan: A Your Fisheries Pilot...continued.

The Action Plan The approach taken to develop the Tamar Catchment Fisheries Action Plan was to start by assessing the fry productivity of the Tamar using electrofishing data from 2000-2010. These results were considered alongside existing evidence and plans, such as Salmon Action Plan, habitat walkover surveys, and genetic data. Following discussions with the Tamar Fisheries Forum, each sub-catchment was assigned a set of recommendations and has been classified according to the following system:

Defend

These areas have good* stocks and habitat, and need safeguarding actions to ensure no decline occurs.

Repair

These areas have moderate* fish stocks, and fish habitat in a moderate condition; these areas need assisted habitat recovery to move them into the Defend category.

Attack

These areas have poor* fish stocks, and the habitat is significantly degraded. These areas need drastic intervention such as habitat re-engineering in order to improve their status. *Please note these do not relate to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) classifications with similar names.

Though this provides a clear structuring framework, in reality each complex river system lies on a continuum within these categories. A useful way to visualize this continuum is using the inverted pyramid diagram below.

The goal is to move the sub-catchments of the Tamar up the pyramid from the unstable point, with poor fish stocks and habitat, to the broad top of a healthy, natural riverine ecosystem.

Actions to achieve these improvements can be broadly divided between ‘fish stock actions’, such as fish translocations or bag limits for anglers, and ‘fish habitat actions’, such as removing barriers to migration or coppicing. In many situations, both types of action will be required.

The Tamar Fisheries Action Plan ATTACK The Wolf The Wolf has a controlled flow due to Roadford Dam. It is therefore impossible to restore it to its natural state. Gravel reintroduction could provide hydro-morphological benefits, however, this would not be a cost-effective solution, so this catchment has not been prioritised for works.

The Upper Tamar (including Deer, Claw and Main Tamar) and Carey

This area historically produced significant salmon spawning. However, water meadows and culm grassland have mostly disappeared, driven by a shift into intensive dairy, high stocking rates and maize production.

The Upstream Thinking project is active in this area, addressing the causes of poor egg to fry survival. Therefore this action plan proposal focuses on increasing salmon and trout fry productivity, which is limited by clean spawning gravel.

The proposed work will:

• Carry out walkover surveys to identify suitable sites for gravel restoration, supplemented by baseline fry electrofishing surveys and EA data.

• Treat identified sites by either 1) gravel cleaning or 2) the introduction of artificial spawning beds.

• Monitor treated sites for siltation and detect salmon fry productivity

The two approaches will be compared and the most cost-effective will be rolled out to other areas. In addition, similar actions will be undertaken at ‘Repair’ sites, allowing the comparison of approaches at different sites.

REPAIR

Ottery and Kensey These sub-catchments have water quality issues related to point and diffuse pollution, however, unlike the Upper Tamar they have natural salmon spawning. In this situation the model proposes restoration activity. A habitat walkover survey should be carried out to target restoration work.

Initial thoughts are that over-shading is significant in some of these areas, along with gravel siltation. In particular, the Ottery has opportunities for gravel works combined with coarse and large woody debris. This will encourage flow over gravels and therefore reduce siltation. Brash installation would also be a suitable technique for bank stabilisation.

DEFEND The Inny

The Inny has historically been an important moorland-fed spawning area for salmon and sea trout. However recent monitoring indicates that water quality may be declining, and increased maize growth in the catchment has been identified as a potential issue. Land-management is outside the scope of this action plan, however, the following actions have been proposed for defending the Inny fishery: • Gravel cleaning – to protect spawning areas from declining water quality and increased siltation.

• Monitor fry productivity - to detect if water quality is impacting salmon fry.

• Invasive weed removal – starting in the upper catchment, eliminating the ‘seedbank’ supply, then maintaining and expanding this invasive weed free area downstream.

The Lyd (including Lew and Thrushel, but excluding the Wolf)

This is a highly productive sub-catchment for both (sea) trout and salmon. The aim in this catchment is to: • Maximise productivity of this catchment by riparian shade management • Monitor to identify issues that need resolution

Monitoring could include river-fly and electrofishing, and walkover surveys to ensure that riparian management is optimised for salmon juvenile productivity. The Lyd would also be a candidate for an invasive weed elimination, however the less linear river structure would make this challenging.

Integrated Catchment Management WaterLIFE & the Upstream Thinking Initiative

In 2010, South West Water, in collaboration with a group of regional conservation charities including the Westcountry Rivers Trust and the Wildlife Trusts of Devon and Cornwall, launched one of the largest and most innovative conservation projects in the UK, called the ‘Upstream Thinking Initiative’ delivering £9 million of strategic land restoration over five years.

The ‘Upstream Thinking’ Initiative arose from some ‘lateral thinking’ on behalf of the project team – all conceded that we ask a lot from landowners in our rural catchments. We ask them to produce food, which they can get paid for, but we also ask them to deliver clean water, protect biodiversity, contribute

to flood defence, mange landscape character and accommodate recreation and access, most of which they cannot get paid for. Unsurprisingly they struggle to deliver all of these services to the level required by society. Instead of resorting to prosecuting landowners for not delivering all of the

above services under the traditional ‘polluter pays principle’ the group felt that landowners should be financially encouraged and rewarded for their positive actions in what could be described as a new ‘provider is paid principle’. Additionally, the nature of agricultural pollution is such that there are thousands of small pollution incidents across a wide area, which do not often breach water standards but which collectively cause polluted rivers.

The WaterLIFE Project began towards the end of Upstream Thinking 1 and gave us a huge opportunity to refine our farmer engagement, monitoring and communication work towards the project. It also

Good farm vs bad farm

helped us to integrate the Upstream Thinking work with the Tamar Catchment Partnership and to made a vital contribution to shaping and informing the development of the South West Water 2014 Business Plan, which included the Upstream Thinking 2 Project, which is now underway.

Upstream Thinking 2

Supported by WaterLIFE and building on the success of Upstream Thinking 1 (2010-2015), the Westcountry Rivers Trust has continued to work with South West Water to deliver the second phase of the Upstream Thinking (UST) initiative, running from 2015 to 2020.

Over the current 5-year period, we are working with landowners across 5 strategically important drinking water supply river catchments in the Westcountry: the Fowey, Tamar, Exe, Dart and Otter catchments. The WaterLIFE Project, which has run during this critical transition period from UST1 to UST2, has been a vital enabler in helping us to build on the lessons learnt in the Tamar and other UST1 catchments and take them into the new catchments across the South West - such as the Dart and Exe. UST1 aimed to improve water quality primarily through nutrient and sediment reduction and, while UST2 is still working on these same principles, it has a particular focus on reducing pesticide pollution.

Drinking water is subject to stringent European guidelines for pesticides and UST2 is working to reduce the risks associated with agricultural pesticide use both on the land and through handling operations before they reach our watercourses or the water treatment works. This will have an improved benefit to river ecology as well as saving money for practitioners through improved practices. We are also working to build relationships with contractors and agronomists as an integral part of our efforts to reduce pesticide pollution.

Integrated Catchment Management WaterLIFE & the Upstream Thinking Initiative...continued.

The catchment of the River Tamar and its tributaries covers a total land area of around 1,800 km2 in the South West of England (see map on opposite page). The farmed land in the catchment, which totals 134,000 Ha (73% of the area), is comprised of around 18,400 Ha of land used for crops, 16,192 Ha of temporary grassland and 88,440 Ha of permanent grassland. Agricultural Census and Rural Payments Agency data indicate that there are approximately 3,000 registered farm holdings in the Catchment and that around 800 are over 50 Ha in size.

Examination of the overall Water Framework Directive status for each waterbody in the Tamar Catchment during the 1st Cycle River Basin Management Plans, reveals that 68 out of 100 were failing to meet ‘Good Ecological Status’ and that several, in parts of the Inny and Upper Tamar sub-catchments, were regarded as being more significantly degraded, having been given individual WFD element classifications of ‘poor status’ (12 waterbodies). In addition 3 of the 5 the Drinking Water Protected Areas in the catchment are considered to be ‘at risk’ due to escalating pressure from agricultural diffuse pollution such as pesticides, sediment, nutrients, colour and microbial contaminants.

To address these problems, the WaterLIFE Project Team (integrated with the Upstream Thinking Initiative) has engaged with over 100 farms, created 73 Integrated Farm Management Plans (focusing on sediment, nutrient and pesticide management), delivered 16 on-farm investments (totalling ~£300,000), initiated a further 17 investment negotiations, and brought around 5,000 hectares of farmland under ‘active management’. In doing this we have also restored ~200 hectares of natural habitat and protected ~4 km of river corridor (including rights of way repaired).

In addition, many of the farmer-engagement processes developed in the Tamar during WaterLIFE have now successfully adopted by catchment officers working in other catchments across the South West (Exe, Fowey, Dart, Yeo, Otter).

Tamar Catchment Partnership Delivery of Actions during WaterLIFE

WaterLIFE Delivery >100 farms engaged 73 Integrated Farm Plans ~5,000 Ha in ‘active management 16 on-farm investments (~ÂŁ300k) 17 further investments in progress ~200 Ha of habitat restored ~4 km of river corridor protected

Integrated Catchment Management WaterLIFE & the Upstream Thinking Initiative...continued.

Tamar farm visited in March 2016 where work was identified to update the dirty water system through installing a new pump to reduce the risk of overflows to the river and by redirecting it across the farm via pipework system. Works completed to value of £4,406 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

Tamar farm visited in January 2016 where work was identified to cover an open yard area to reduce volumes of dirty water produced, diverting clean water and thereby improving slurry storage and reducing nutrient spreading on the land.

Works completed to value of £21,500 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

Tamar farm visited in January 2016 where work was identified for improvements to a baled silage store area to reduce risk from any escaped leachate or sediment being mobilized and reaching watercourses. Works completed to value of £22,194 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

Tamar farm visited in March 2016 where work was identified to replace the old slurry tank and replace it with an underfloor store below the collecting yard. The old tin store had very limited remaining operational life and the farmer was keen to have new facilities in place to avoid risk of failures. Works completed to value of ÂŁ24,948 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

Tamar farm visited in August 2016 where work was identified for fencing to protect the watercourses, providing a wider natural buffer to intercept any soil or nutrients mobilised. The fence line incorporates gated access for stock management and one improved crossing with stone. Works completed to value of ÂŁ2,033 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

An Exe farm (upscaling) visited in November 2015 where work was identified to upgrade 2 sections of the current cattle track by installing concrete sleepers to negate the poaching of soils under and reduce mobilisation and nutrient loading entering adjacent watercourses. Works completed to value of ÂŁ5,614 (50% grant).

BEFORE

AFTER

Monitoring

Investigation, justification, targeting measures & assessing outcomes The Tamar Catchment Partnership have now been working collaboratively for ~5 years to develop evidence-based and cost-effective programmes for landscape-scale environmental assessment and catchment management interventions. This work has been hugely facilitated by the WaterLIFE Project and the work of the National CaBA Catchment Data User Group and the Rivers Trust who have empowered and enabled CaBA groups to make the very best use of data and evidence to inform their work in four key areas; (1) investigation, (2) justification, (3) development of intervention programmes, and (4) assessment of outcomes.

Investigation To demonstrate that our catchment management interventions are timely, targeted and necessary we use the latest modelling, surveying and mapping techniques to investigate river condition, identify threats to ecosystem health (e.g. sources of water pollution), create integrated catchment management plans and target additional monitoring.

Comprehensive reviews of existing data are supplemented with additional, locally derived data collection (a tried and tested weight-of-evidence approach incorporating a wide range of both national, regional and local data).

Justification

To facilitate strategic planning and practical delivery of interventions, the data and evidence collected is also used to engage with stakeholders (individuals, Hand-held water quality monitoring kit used by WaterLIFE team

Freshwater invertebrates monitored at 30 locations in the Tamar

community/civil society groups, land-managers, businesses, funders, etc.). The effective engagement of these stakeholder groups is vital if the catchment management approach is to be a viable option and the measures proposed are to be taken-up.

To achieve this, it is vital that robust evidence is used to establish a clear link between the processes that are occurring in the catchment and the observed degradation of the ecosystem. We must also convince key stakeholders of their potentially critical role in ecosystem management and of the potential secondary benefits to them of being involved.

The effective communication of evidence helps build a mandate for action, to facilitate the development of an ambitious shared vision, to broker consensus about what needs to be done and it can also empower, inspire and enable stewardship of the environment by a variety of stakeholders.

ChemCatcher passive samplers deployed 12 times in 7 locations

Electrofishing surveys in Ottery Catchment

WRT have taken 1297 individual water quality samples across our 5 UST catchments in the last 2 years, which have contributed to our understanding of local issues and provides evidence for future targeting as a result.

Monitoring

Investigation, justification, targeting & assessing outcomes...continued.

Development of interventions Having built a comprehensive and robust evidencebase, the data and evidence collected can also be used to strategically target and design catchment management initiatives (in a variety of landscapes) with the measures proposed carefully tailored to each individual situation and objective.

This evidence-led and collaborative approach to intervention design and implementation, which was greatly facilitated by the WaterLIFE project, aims to achieve the best possible environmental and economic benefits for all of the interested parties in a landscape.

In the Tamar Catchment we have initiated a weekly monitoring programme for water chemistry (see top right of opposite page )and undertaken a wide array of ecological monitoring to help us target and design our environmental management programme.

Assessment of outcomes

A critical stage in the stakeholder-led, partnership

approach to catchment management delivery is demonstrating that interventions have not only been effective in delivering demonstrable and quantifiable environmental outcomes, but also that they have realised a wide array of ancillary financial, social and ecological benefits.

To support this work, the CaBA Benefits Assessment Working Group and Catchment Data User Group have been working with the WaterLIFE Team to mentor local CaBA groups and develop supporting tools and resources to build capacity and capability in the monitoring and evaluation of both outputs and outcomes resulting from their work.

This approach incorporates the very latest expertise and technology available to ensure that CaBA groups are able to capture meaningful evidence in a manner that is both robust and cost-effective.

Only through the gathering of this high quality evidence will local partnerships be able to showcase the value of their work, demonstrate the cost-benefit return on their investments and secure future funding.

Chemical Monitoring During Upstream Thinking 2 we have attempted to improve our understanding of current water quality within each of the target catchments in order to prioritise areas for interventions.

Supported by the WaterLIFE Team in the Tamar, each of our catchment advisors have been given a portable water quality monitoring test kit. They are undertaking regular testing at key locations across each catchment to get multiple snapshots of water quality. Rapidly, we start to get a picture (see Tamar scorecard; right) of which areas within the catchment are producing the most pollution; repeat surveys improve that picture.

Change in WFD Status The first set of evidence that we can use to assess the impact of our work in the Tamar over the last 4 years is to determine whether there have been any changes in their WFD classification.

For surface waters, such as rivers and lakes, the ‘overall status’ of a waterbody is comprised of an ecological and a chemical component. Ecological status is recorded on the scale high, good, moderate, poor and bad (with moderate or worse being regarded as failure), while chemical status is measured simply as good or fail.

The evaluation of invertebrate assemblages in a river is perhaps the best method for assessing the impacts of environmental stress. Samples collected using standardised methods are identified to the level of taxonomic family or species and their approximate abundance in the sample recorded. This data is then used to calculate biotic indices, which are used to draw conclusions about the condition of the river and to make comparisons between sites on the same or different rivers.

The current biotic index used for WFD classification is termed the ‘average score per taxon’ (ASPT) index. In this method taxa are allocated scores according to their sensitivity to pollution. An alternative index; the Proportion of Sediment-sensitive Invertebrates (PSI) index, can be used to assess the degree to which the ecology of a river is impacted by sediment.

Change (2011-2015) in invertebrate indices at 30 locations in the Tamar 35

 PSI /  ASPT

% CHANGE IN PSI BETWEEN 2011 AND 2015

Invertebrate Monitoring

The change in the WFD Ecological status for each waterbody in the Tamar catchment between 2013 and 2016 is shown in the map (left). Examination of this data, which shows information for around 50 waterbodies in the Tamar catchment itself, reveals that, while 6 waterbodies have seen their status decline over the time of the WaterLIFE Project, 12 have seen their status improve.

 PSI /  ASPT

25

15

5

-20

-15

-10

 PSI /  ASPT

-5

-5

-15

0

5

10

15

 PSI /  ASPT

-25 % CHANGE IN ASPT BETWEEN 2011 AND 2015

20

Water Stewardship ‘Local’

Initiating a local dialogue with businesses WRT has extensive previous experience in providing an ethical broker role between buyers and sellers within Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes. PES schemes implemented in the UK to date have involved landowners and farmers as sellers, with buyers including anglers, the public (as visitors to a site), government and water companies. At the start of the WaterLIFE Project, WRT recognised that there was, however, an opportunity to develop PES markets with more ‘non-usual suspects’ i.e. businesses, organisations and bodies that the Trust had not traditionally worked with but are seen to have potential as partners.

During the WaterLIFE project, WRT worked with Propeller Associates Limited (PAL) to map stakeholders and identify potential customer groups that WRT did not traditionally work with, and to develop a ‘pitch’ to those businesses. The overall objective for this work was to develop and test an approach for creating new business channels for WRT in the Tamar Catchment and then to upscale this approach to other catchments in the South West.

The primary objective was to develop PES-like or Water Stewardship ‘Local’ opportunities in which WRT could take on the role of ethical broker between buyer and supplier (building on existing relationships with landowners and farmers) or act as supplier directly through its role in environmental improvement. A secondary objective was to consider the role that WRT could have in ethical branding and corporate social responsibility where an organisation develops an affiliation with the Trust and benefits from working with the Trust to deliver benefits to the freshwater environment.

Totnes Business Conversations

Part of the South Devon River Keepers Project

Building on the community and business engagement work previously undertaken in the Tamar Catchment, WRT (supported by the WaterLIFE Project) established a collaborative approach with the newly formed South Devon Bioregional Learning Centre CIC and the South Devon Catchments Partnership to develop a community stewardship project called River Keepers.

As part of this project development, we worked with a local engagement specialist in Totnes to trial a Water Stewardship Local approach in a pilot project called The Totnes Business Conversations Project. The Tones Conversations Project involved the engagement of several local businesses (including food producers, leisure and tourism companies and the local supermarket Morrisons) in a dialogue about their inter-relationship with the water environment and their potential role in becoming stewards of their local environment.

Full report -

www.issuu.com/westcountryriverstrust/docs/totnes-mile-upstream-project

Looking over Totnes and down to the River Dart.

Image: PicsByRaf - (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Soil Organic Carbon Study

A Tamar Partnership Project with the Tamar Organic Group One of the key projects on the original Tamar Catchment partnership Action Plan was a research project into the organic carbon stocks in agricultural soils in the Tamar Catchment.

This had been proposed by WRT and the Tamar Organic Farmers Group in 2012 as an essential preparatory stage in the development of a carbon trading programme that these farmers were seeking to establish.

During the WaterLIFE Project, the Tamar Catchment Partnership did secure some additional funding to undertake this research project, which was delivered by Prof Jennifer Dungait from the Rothamsted Research Centre at North Wyke, Devon.

The aim of the project was to inform the debate on the potential to manage soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks on-farm by changing management in order to develop carbon offsetting schemes in the South West UK. A primary objective of the project was to provide a calibration data set to underpin the development of a toolkit for potential local carbon off-setters. In summary, the results showed that: 1) practical guidance on how to sample and analyse soils, and to interpret the results in a way that is meaningful to farm business objectives, is not commonly available to farmers and land owners; 2) farmers can manage land use to predictably increase soil organic carbon stocks over the long term by changing to a perennial system (Permanent Pasture or Woodland), and 3) farmers can choose to balance food production with carbon sequestration using the mosaic of land uses and field conditions on their farm.

The Nature of Millbrook

A community workshop on flooding and natural capital As a result of connections built-up during the My Tamar Campaign, in 2016 the Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) were engaged by the local community in Millbrook to help them identify and take�up the opportunities available to them and to ensure that the environmental issues experienced in the village do not begin to overshadow the many wonderful things about living in Millbrook.

In September 2016, WRT and some local residents hosted a drop�in information session in Millbrook’s Scout Hall, during which members of the community could learn more about the flooding risks to them, discuss the various environmental challenges faced in the area and to explain how they saw the Millbrook landscape being managed in the future.

The day culminated with a presentation and discussion workshop in the evening and, with over 60 people attending throughout the course of the day, WRT were overwhelmed by the commitment of the Millbrook residents, their engagement with the local environmental issues and their eagerness to build on the wealth of natural resources on their doorstep.

During the workshop, four key environmental issues were discussed and are explored further in

this summary report: the management of Millbrook Lake, the natural amenity spaces in Millbrook, flood risk management and protecting water quality.

During the event, particular focus was given to the issue of flooding in Millbrook, as the village experienced two severe floods within a month in late 2012. Significant infrastructure improvements are being undertaken to help mitigate this problem in the village, but many of the local residents were unclear as to the nature of these works and what additional actions would be required to ensure they were protected from such events in the future.

It is clear from the evidence review we undertook, that there remains a significant land managementrelated water run-off problem in the agricultural areas in the landscape above the village and that improvements in the agricultural practices being

undertaken could see some of this problem resolved.

Millbrook is clearly a stunning place to live and the Tamar Catchment Partnership are looking forward to continuing their work with the local community to help them make the most of the opportunities available to them and ensure that the environmental issues faced by the village do not overshadow the many wonderful things about living in Millbrook.

The WaterLIFE Millbrook Community Workshop

To this end the Tamar Catchment partnership Team have now presented the ‘Nature of Millbrook Report’ to the Millbrook Parish Council and have begun to explore ways to work collaboratively with the local community going forward.

Activities include: 1) the scoping of the village centre for a community sustainable drainage system (SuDS) project; 2) a project proposal submitted to the EA for Millbrook to become a CaBA Natural Flood Management Pilot Area; 3) a programme of farmer engagement in to slow the flow of water from the landscape and improve water quality, and 4) contributions to a series of communications opportunities that include an upcoming visit to Millbrook by BBC Countryfile in summer 2017.

Millbrook from the South with the Tamar estuary beyond Image: Nick Paling

WaterLIFE Healthy Rivers for People and Nature WaterLIFE is a three year project, funded through the EU’s LIFE+ Programme for the Environment, being implemented by WWF-UK, The Rivers Trust and the Westcountry Rivers Trust.

Rivers really are the lifeblood of the country and yet, throughout Europe, they are under threat. The fundamental objective of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to protect, enhance and restore all of Europe’s water bodies through the delivery of River Basin Management Plans which should be developed by member states working with communities and companies. These have the potential to deliver real and exciting improvements to our water bodies, but, to date, they have fallen short.

The threats our rivers face can’t be solved by one organisation alone; communities, business and government need to work together to tackle them effectively. We must have the right conditions to deliver the radical change that’s needed, as well as the means and opportunities to talk to each other, develop successful and innovative approaches, and share best practice.