The Hertfordshire Living Rivers Project is a new four year project, funded by the Environment Agency and hosted by Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT). It’s an incredibly exciting and timely project, with a broad overall remit: to help achieve landscape scale conservation in Hertfordshire’s river valleys. This focus on a landscape scale makes perfect sense – rivers interconnect with each other, and with the catchment which they drain.
A key aim of the project is to raise awareness of the importance of chalk rivers, through work with the media and local communities. The project will also promote better understanding of the link between water coming out of taps and low flows in nearby rivers. Water use in Hertfordshire is around 175 litres per person per day (pppd), 18% above the national average (the Government’s target is 130 litres pppd).
As part of the Hertfordshire Living Rivers project, HMWT are ‘hosting’ catchment management plans for several chalk streams. Planning the management of a catchment is a huge task; no one person or group can do it alone. Instead, by ‘hosting’ the plans, HMWT will help to bring together people and organisations with an interest in the river. This approach emphasizes the importance of collaboration and takes a ‘bottom up’ approach, driven by local people. The vision is of a management plan developed and implemented by a partnership of interested people, including farmers, local community groups, fishing clubs, landowners, charities and statutory bodies.
The Wildlife Trusts
Intrinsic Value
Chalk rivers are one of our rarest and most precious habitats. There are only around 170 chalk streams in the world – that makes them rarer than Giant Pandas! Almost all of the world’s chalk streams are found in southeast England. In counties like Hertfordshire we have a real duty to look after these special places and protect them for future generations.
The Wildlife Trusts
Emotional Value
Chalk rivers are one of our most attractive landscapes and loved by many people. As well as their unique ecology they provide places for recreation where children can paddle and go ‘river dipping’, places for fishing, places for walking and places to watch and appreciate wildlife. These rivers provided inspiration for ‘Wind in the Willows’ and to this day the best chalk rivers continue to provide homes for the descendants of Ratty and his friends.
The Wildlife Trusts
Financial Value
Most of our water in Hertfordshire and Middlesex is obtained from a natural underground chalk aquifer. Where the aquifer meets the ground surface, springs run, providing the source of water to our chalk rivers. The water is incredibly pure and requires little treatment before being provided to consumers making it a valuable asset to water companies. The rivers still support a commercial watercress industry and in the past, the rivers provided the power to a number of mills. Chalk rivers provide habitat for many fisheries, providing an income from membership to the owners of those rivers.
The Wildlife Trusts
Societal Value
Chalk rivers play an important role in the culture of Hertfordshire and Middlesex, providing places for recreation and pastimes such as angling. The rivers also provide important educational opportunities – at key stage two in the national curriculum children in Hertfordshire have been taken by the Trust to learn about their local rivers and the impact of water consumption on them.
The Wildlife Trusts
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved in helping chalk rivers, contact Charlie Bell, Hertfordshire Living Rivers Officer on 01727 858901 ext. 245 or email Charlie.bell@hmwt.org
Web-based catchment plans are being implemented for the Rivers Beane, Mimram and Stort – www.beaneandmimrampartnership.org.uk or www.stortriverpartnerhip.org.uk