Case study:North Devon Riverlands
Project overview
| Status | In progress |
|---|---|
| Project web site | |
| Themes | Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Land use management - agriculture, Land use management - forestry, Social benefits, Water quality |
| Country | England |
| Main contact forename | James |
| Main contact surname | Thomas |
| Main contact user ID | User:James.thomas |
| Contact organisation | National Trust |
| Contact organisation web site | http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/devon/arlington-court-and-the-national-trust-carriage-museum/north-devon-riverlands-project |
| Partner organisations | |
| This is a parent project encompassing the following projects |
Project summary
The North Devon Riverlands Project restores wetland habitats across North Devon. Collaborating with four Ranger teams—Arlington Court, West Exmoor, Hartland, and Woolacombe—we focus on nature-based solutions to enhance water quality, reduce flood risk, combat soil erosion, and improve drought resilience, while promoting biodiversity. These efforts will create healthy, natural spaces for all to enjoy.
The Riverlands project The Riverlands project is an ambitious, long-term programme of work, at the heart of the Trust’s ambitions for restoring a healthy, natural environment. We're creating larger, connected spaces for nature on the land we care for, working in partnerships to achieve sustainable landscapes that benefit both people and wildlife.
Currently only 14% of England’s rivers are in good health, with 13% of freshwater and wetland species now threatened with extinction in the UK. 90% of lowland ponds were lost in the 20th century and 90% of our wetland habitat has been lost over the past century. We're setting out to reverse this trend through our work.
Our Vision Our vision is to restore:
“A dynamic network of varied and naturally functioning wetland habitats across North Devon to create a diverse and resilient area for wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy.”
Background Centuries of land drainage across North Devon for farming and development have harmed wildlife and the environment. Streams and rivers were canalized and disconnected from floodplains, resulting in wetlands lost, reduced water quality, and an increased risk of flash flooding and soil erosion.
These practices have also had profound impacts upon wildlife, massively reducing the once widespread wetland habitats that many plants and animals depend on for their survival. This includes some of our most threatened and iconic species, such as water voles, otters, and kingfisher.
With more extreme weather causing floods, droughts, and further habitat loss, there is a growing need for sustainable water management to protect both wildlife and landscapes.
The opportunity in North Devon Working across four Ranger teams and portfolios, with our partners, offers the opportunity to restore significant areas of wetland habitats across North Devon. This will be done by removing man-made drainage features and working with natural processes to allow the land to function in a more natural way.
From simple measures such as creating new ponds and scrapes to increasing open water, blocking land drains and drainage ditches to expand wetland habitat, all the way through to wet woodland creation, floodplain reconnection and resetting the land through stage zero techniques. Stage zero techniques involve restoring rivers and tributaries to a more natural state before human interference.
These measures will help hold water across a wider area for longer, thereby improving water quality, reducing flood risk and improving drought resilience. This creation of wetland, will also have a positive impact of biodiversity, increasing habitat for bird such as pied flycatchers, small mammals and invertebrates along with an increase in dragonflies and damsel flies, which are insects that support farmland birds and bats.
Monitoring surveys and results
We are monitoring changes across our sites with anecdotal evidence showing increases to the number of frogs, dragon flies, invertebrates, birds and other wildlife.
Lessons learnt
The video summarising project work so far can be seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TcxL3JD6UQ&t=153s
Catchment and subcatchment
Edit the catchment and subcatchment details
(affects all case studies in this subcatchment)
Catchment
| River basin district | South West |
|---|---|
| River basin | North Devon |
Subcatchment
| River name | TAW / TORRIDGE |
|---|---|
| Area category | |
| Area (km2) | |
| Maximum altitude category | |
| Maximum altitude (m) | |
| Dominant geology | |
| Ecoregion | Great Britain |
| Dominant land cover | |
| Waterbody ID | GB540805015500 |
Other case studies in this subcatchment: The Taw River Improvement Project (TRIP)
This case study is pending approval by a RiverWiki administrator.
Image gallery
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Site
Project background
Cost for project phases
Reasons for river restoration
Measures
MonitoringHydromorphological quality elements
Biological quality elements
Physico-chemical quality elements
Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic
Monitoring documents
Additional documents and videos
Additional links and references
Supplementary InformationEdit Supplementary Information
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