White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) are Britain’s only native crayfish species. Their population has drastically declined in recent years due to the introduction of non-native crayfish species, habitat destruction and pollution. Now, catastrophe has struck in one of their last remaining strongholds – Northumberland.
At least one hundred individuals, with peculiar orange patches on their shells, have been found dead in the River Wansbeck’s catchment area.
The Wildlife Trusts report that a group of UK nature charities have written to Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP and Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP calling for action to protect the UK’s chalk streams in planning reforms.
The letter is headed by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and signed by various river, water and wildlife charities including The Rivers Trust, Angling Trust, River Action, Wild Trout Trust and The Wildlife Trusts. The letter leads on from the March for Clean Water earlier this month, when over 15,000 people including charities, campaigners and celebrities gathered in London calling for Government action to improve the health of rivers, lakes and seas.
The charities writing today urge the UK Government to integrate enhanced protections for chalk streams into reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). During the Government’s consultation on proposed changes to the NPPF (30th July – 24th September), more than 700 people urged action on protecting chalk streams.
Discover Wildlife report it may sound like something from a dystopian movie, but ‘Stage Zero’ has just created a paradise.
Something remarkable is happening in a quiet corner of Somerset in south-west England: the creation of an Eden. And it’s all thanks ‘Stage Zero’ – or ‘Stage 0’ – an innovative river restoration technique originally developed in Oregon, USA.
A year after completing an ambitious Stage Zero project on the Holnicote Estate in Somerset, rangers say the site is unrecognisable.
ITV News reports councillors in the Cotswolds have reacted angrily after yet more raw sewage was pumped into local rivers.
The Telegraph reports criticism should be aimed at polluters who flush wet wipes down the lavatory and pour cooking oil in the sink, Sir James Bevan to say
BBC News and Sky News report raw sewage, microplastics and slurry are coursing through all of England’s rivers, putting health and nature at risk, a parliamentary report concludes. Agriculture and water companies are the biggest contributors to this “chemical cocktail”, the Environmental Audit Committee warns. Car tyre particles, oils and wet wipes are also clogging waterways.
The Guardian reports efforts to contain the non-native invader failed and it has spread all over England and Wales’s waterways.
The Guardian reports water companies are at the centre of a major investigation by the financial and environmental watchdogs after they admitted they may have illegally released untreated sewage into rivers and waterways.
The Environment Agency and Ofwat said they had begun an investigation into sewage treatment works, after new checks led to the admission from the water companies.
This investigation will involve more than 2,000 sewage treatment works, nearly a third of the total number in England and Wales, with any company caught breaching their legal permits liable to enforcement action, including fines or prosecutions.
WiredGov reports the Environment Agency recently (15 October 2021) welcomed a new chalk stream strategy to protect ‘England’s rainforests’
The Catchment Based Approach’s Chalk Stream Restoration Group brings together organisations with an interest in chalk stream management, recognising that protection of chalk streams requires everyone to play their part.
The Independent reports every freshwater body in England currently fails chemical standards and only 16 per cent are classed as being “in good ecological health”, compared to 53 per cent on average across the EU, according to the Wildlife and Countryside Link, the largest environment and wildlife coalition in England, made up of 61 organisations. The report warns that the climate crisis is worsening conditions for England’s “already beleaguered waters”.