January 2022
BACP Stakeholder Workshops- Setting the direction for the BACP for the next 5 years
The image below shows some of the feedback collected for Aim 4- Adaptation and resilience to climate change.
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Updates from around the catchment
Brinkworth Brook
Catch up on Farming Today on Radio 4 to hear Tim Stephens, Catchment Delivery Manager at Wessex Water talking about phosphate reduction in the Brinkworth Brook tributary of the Bristol Avon Catchment. The nutrients are reduced through working effectively with farmers to implement solutions such as tree planting and nutrient management planning on farms. Follow this link to listen to the segment (interview starts four minutes in).
Bathampton Meadows Land Transfer
Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) have transferred the land around Bathampton Meadows, adjacent to the River Avon, to the National Trust to manage. This will provide a vital green corridor to connect the World Heritage Site with the countryside around it. This follows on from lots of work by B&NES through the River Line project to improve the water environment through and around Bath. Find out more here.
The Friends of the Marden Valley- Protecting the river for future generations
The Friends of the Marden Valley recently declared the 'Rights of the River Marden', which are outlined in the image below. The Town Crier declared the River Rights from the four cardinal points of the town as part of Calne's River Festival. At the same time, they revealed two new information boards to inform and engage residents about the wildlife supported by the River Marden.
Other river groups have also done this around the country, including in the River Cam, Cambridge. This article provides more details if you would like to find out more.
If you would like to get in contact with Robert, from The Friends of the River Marden, please contact Siobhan, who will forward your details on to him.
(River Marden Catchment, upstream of Calne)
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Updates from further afield
The Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) Agriculture Hub is now live
They are developing a free-to-use online platform that will help farmers, advisers, retailers, CaBA partnerships (including water companies) and others more easily identify:
- Sources of local, environmentally-focused farm advice in a specific area
- Key environmental issues and opportunities
- The range of different related initiatives, projects, and funding opportunities
The Government has provided more information on the next stages of the ELM Scheme, and specifically on the Local Nature Recovery Scheme and Landscape Recovery Scheme
The Local Nature Recovery Scheme ‘will pay for locally-targeted actions to make space for nature in the farmed landscape and the wider countryside’ – it is described as a more ambitious successor to the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
The Landscape Recovery Scheme is for ‘landowners and managers who want to take a more radical and large-scale approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land’, and is open to any individuals or groups who want to come together to deliver large (500 – 5000 ha) scale projects
The Schemes will be rolled out in full by 2024, with £800 million available per year by 2028 for each scheme (alongside £800 million for the Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme).
Applications for the first round of 15 landscape recovery projects will be soon open to farmers and land managers, including any individuals or groups that want to come together to deliver large (500 – 5000 ha) scale projects in England. Projects will need to focus on either ‘recovering and restoring England’s threatened native species’ or ‘restoring England’s streams and rivers’. For more information please see here.
The ELMS provides a significant opportunity for the partnership projects and programmes being developed and delivered around the catchment. This also emphasises the need for the BACP to continue supporting the work of the Nature Recovery Networks, which we hope will play an important role in underpinning the development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategies and go towards targeting the interventions and projects being supported through ELMS.
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Upcoming Events
Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) events
CaBA Partnership Working - Governance Research webinar:
This webinar will present research on partnership governance commissioned by the Environment Agency’s Flood Research team and led by Middlesex University. The audience is authorities/organisations with an interest in partnership working.
31st January 2pm-3pm
CaBA Wholescale Approach to Marine Management (WAMM): A Collaborative Approach to Coastal Management - webinar
The WAMM project was established to help drive closer collaboration between the CaBA Partnerships, Coastal Partnerships and the Coastal Partnerships Network (CPN). In doing so, WAMM has helped to advance a ‘wholescape’ approach that links the coastal environment to the terrestrial and freshwater components upstream.
This webinar will provide an overview of the project, including the development of a ‘Roadmap to Collaborative Delivery’, the coastal data package and explorer and case studies of collaborative working.
2nd March 9:30-11:30
Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG SW) are running three workshops on accessing grant schemes to achieve environmental outcomes in three AONB areas:
Mendips event, 17th February, 2pm
Quantock Hills event, 23rd February, 2pm
Blackdown Hills event, 24th February, 2pm