Our 2024 Project Round Up!..
As we look forward to a productive and rewarding 2025, we thought we’d take a moment to look back and remind ourselves – and you – of what we achieved in 2024:
Species Recovery Project
This project is part of a wider Species Recovery Project run by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust which is working towards improving the site for white clawed crayfish and was a combined project delivered between our farming & conservation and volunteering teams. Following permissions from landowners and with support from volunteers, we pulled the invasive Himalayan balsam along the length of Timble Gill in the Washburn Valley.
Wharfe Aeration Project
Along with wider farm engagement, we hosted two well attended and collaboratively run Soil Health and Aeration farm events in Wharfedale. The first hosted in Burnsall included help from the Farmer Network, NFU, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Catchment Sensitive Farming. The second hosted in Addingham was run in collaboration with Nidderdale National Landscapes, Catchment Sensitive Farming and included help from the NFU. This project encouraged discussion around soil health, aeration and the removal of compaction within grassland for both agricultural and environmental benefit.
Dales to Vales River Network
The catchment management plans for each of our rivers are published and available for all to see here. The water quality testing along the Ure went from an idea/suggestion in February to being a reality of covering 45 sites over two separate days in August and October.
Ongoing Projects – Nidd Catchment:
Harrogate Becks
River walkovers have been carried out across Bilton and Oak Beck to identify restoration opportunities and assess habitat conditions. Water testing was conducted at Harlow Carr in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society. A partnership has now been developed which awaits the outcome of two funding applications to the National Lottery.
Full Stean Ahead
Comprehensive farm-wide monitoring has been conducted to establish the baseline condition of How Stean Beck. This included monitoring fish, aquatic invertebrates, diatoms, and water chemistry. One further and final round of testing is to be carried out before conclusions and recommendations can be made.
Big Nidd-INNS
Nidderdale National Landscapes funded volunteer surveys and control measures for Himalayan balsam, with contractors addressing significant invasion areas. Volunteers received training to apply pesticides, building capacity for the next year’s programme.
iNidd Water Quality Monitoring: Delving Deeper
Twelve YDRT Riverfly surveyors were trained and set up to monitor aquatic riverfly populations across the Nidd catchment. Surface water outfall testing was took place with Yorkshire Water to identify misconnections, and a plan for regular testing at problematic sites on Oak Beck was developed.
Ongoing Projects – Wharfe Catchment:
Bardsey Fields
This project got underway towards the end of 2024, marking the start of a collaboration supporting East Keswick Wildlife Trust with Yorkshire Water funding to improve one of its fields for wildlife and the health of the beck it flows into. The project includes tree and hedge planting, new fencing and Natural Flood Management (NFM) features.
Ongoing projects – Swale Catchment:
Mid Swale Tributaries
A feasibility and options appraisal has been carried out to explore the future removal of the ford on Skeeby Beck, which currently blocks fish passage. This work included flood modelling and topographical surveys to understand the catchment area and determine the most suitable crossing size, ensuring continued access for the tenant farmer. It will also help the fish population to recover following a major pollution incident.
Tees-Swale Diffuse Metals
The latest phase of this project to reduce heavy metal pollution in Upper Teesdale’s rivers was completed. This involved the creation of more than three hectares of vegetation plots using a novel hydroseeding technology to limit erosion and metal runoff from abandoned lead mines. This initiative, led by us and the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme (WAMM), highlights the importance of partnership working to improve water quality and enhance biodiversity in the area.
Working with the North Pennines National Landscape, the project team and volunteers have planted out more than 400 rare caliminarian plug plants which were grown from seed collected and sown by volunteers. This has increased the amount of calaminarian grassland − a rare, protected habitat – bringing a boost to biodiversity in the area.
This project is being funded by WAMM and National Lottery Heritage Fund through the Tees-Swale: naturally connected project
Ongoing Projects – Ure Catchment:
Ousewem
Ousewem (for which YDRT is the main delivery partner – visit Ousewem for more details) delivered its first two Natural Flood Management (NFM) projects at Smaden Head and Cragg & Carr farms installing leaky barriers, scrapes and planting trees. Together these will help store 984,835 pints of water (466m3), helping reduce the risk of flooding, as well as providing new habitats for wildlife.
Having already engaged with nearly 30 different landowners Ousewem has another seven projects in development, with hopefully many more to come over the next two years.
>>>If you live in the Hunton, Hawes, Bishop Monkton, Bellerby, Masham or Arkengarthdale areas Ousewem for eligible farmers and landowners can fully fund and project manage NFM projects on your land. For further information email: [email protected]
Over the last year Ousewem has also welcomed two new staff members to its delivery team: Emma Stallworthy for Natural England and Guy Mason for YDRT.
The Ousewem project is funded by Defra as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes which is managed by the Environment Agency. The programmes will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.
Volunteer Update
Our team of more than 80 volunteers came together most weeks to plant trees, remove plastic tree guards, coppice trees and hedges and carry out river health testing interventions including Riverfly monitoring, water sampling and Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) mapping and control. Over the year this has contributed nearly 1500 volunteer hours to improving and monitoring Yorkshire Dales rivers.
River2U Education Project Update:
Our award winning education project made 36 school visits, working with 1236 children to inspire them about rivers and wildlife!
The Rivers2U mobile classroom also attended 17 public events enabling us to engage with more than 1700 people across the region.
A Resource Pack for the Watery Wildlife section of the Skell Valley Project, was also produced in collaboration with Nidderdale National Landscape and the National Trust can be downloaded here: Watery Wildlife Resource Pack – Nidderdale National Landscape
