2010 Agm - Top Venue, Top Speakers

VOICE OF THE RIVERS

The Newsletter of South West Rivers Association Issue 21 – February 2010 2010 AGM - TOP VENUE, TOP SPEAKERS

Our 2010 AGM and Lunch will be held at the Arundell Arms Hotel, Lifton, on Saturday 27 March. Once again we have been fortunate to secure a top speaker:

Dr Ronald Campbell, Biologist to the Tweed Foundation, is widely respected as a leader in the field of salmon fishery management. His scientific approach is a major factor in the Tweed’s position as the UK’s premier salmon river. He will present ‘A Talk on the Wild Side: Salmon Management on the Tweed’.

Our Patron, Orri Vigfusson, will update us on the work of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund; Dr Dylan Bright, Director of Westcountry Rivers Trust, will outline exciting developments for the Trust; and our Secretary, Roger Furniss, will report on the work of the Association in the last year.

Draw tickets will be on sale on the day or in advance – a book of tickets is enclosed with the AGM invitation.

An invitation and application are enclosed with this Newsletter. Places are limited and will be allocated in order of receipt of application.

2009 AGM REPORT

100 members and guests attended. After the routine business the Stuart Gardiner Award for Conservation was presented to John Montague for his sterling work for the Teign and other South Devon rivers, especially in relation to the Water Framework Directive and fighting abstraction.

The Secretary presented a summary of the main activities of the year likening it to a war in which the number of pressures on our rivers, their fisheries, and the interests of owners had increased substantially, necessitating constant vigilance and action.

After short reports from our Patron and Chairman of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Orri Vigfusson; Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the newly formed Angling Trust; and Dr Dylan Bright, Director of Westcountry Rivers Trust, we were treated to an entertaining and enlightening presentation by Professor Brian Moss, entitled ‘Fish, Dr Faustus and Gaia; an unholy future’, in which he described the interconnections between man’s activities, climate change and fish.

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Having served as your Chairman since the 2002 AGM, I would like to retire at the 2011 AGM. Our Secretary, Roger Furniss, is willing to stand as Chairman and your Council is supportive of this change. That leaves us in need of a new Secretary from April 2011.

Roger will be happy to continue to lead on technical matters unless the new Secretary has the relevant skills and experience in this area. The prime requirement of the new Secretary, therefore, will be the ability to administer the business of the Association efficiently, including the quarterly Council Meetings, Liaison Meetings with the Environment Agency, and the Annual General Meeting. With the proposed timetable there will be the opportunity for the new Secretary to overlap with Roger ensuring a smooth transition.

If anyone is interested in the position and wishes to know more about the job please could they contact me on 07831 406365.

Our Treasurer, Arthur White, who has given us sterling service for even more years, also wishes to stand down in 2011, and a potential replacement has already been identified.

Humphrey Wood Chairman

1 SWRA thanks Yeandle Geotechnical for printing this Newsletter

2 ‘UNAMBITIOUS’ RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS PUBLISHED

On 22 December the final South West River Basin Plan was published – this is one of 10 regional plans which set out the UK’s proposals to meet the challenge of the European Water Framework Directive.

Despite the efforts of many environmental bodies, including SWRA, at regional and national level the Plans are still unambitious. They offer little prospect of significant improvement by 2015, the first deadline for all rivers to achieve Good Ecological Status. Excessive use has been made of the Directive’s derogations which allow delays and lower standards, but only in exceptional circumstances.

Areas of the Plans where the lack of ambition is of greatest concern to us include: -

 inadequate monitoring of fish stocks to enable assessment of their status;

 insufficient action to deal with diffuse pollution from agriculture with its impact on river water quality including sedimentation;

 too little attention to river flows and the problem of over-abstraction

However a number of national bodies, including World Wildlife Fund, RSPB and Angling Trust are working together to exert pressure on Defra and the Environment Agency to increase the level of ambition in the Plans.

CANOEING – THE BATTLE CONTINUES

The British Canoe Union/Canoe England continue to insist that to ensure that conservation needs are not compromised by they will only ratify Voluntary Access Agreements which canoe agreements. This involvement was helpful on the Lyn include all your round canoeing. At the same time they are where the main riparian owner, the National Trust, and campaigning for a change in the law to give an automatic right canoeists were pressing for a year round agreement, including of navigation – tacit acceptance of the settled legal opinion that access in the upper reaches where spawning occurs. After no such right exists. much negotiation and stout input from the Lyn Riparian Owners Association, satisfactory agreement has been reached with no canoeing in the fishing season or in the upper reaches.

During an Angling Trust fringe meeting at the Labour Party On the Lyn, various bodies - including the Environment Conference and in a subsequent meeting with angling Agency, National Park, Natural England and canoeing representatives, the Fisheries Minister, Huw Irranca Davies, representatives - have agreed to signage and website promised to arrange a meeting of angling, riparian, information to publicise the details of access. This was a landowning, and canoeing representatives. We have recently significant development - unfortunately the reversal of this on written to the Minister asking him to convene this meeting as a the Dart must call into question Canoe England’s credibility. matter of urgency. This follows Canoe England reneging on its earlier decision to endorse publicly the Dart agreement. In the Our reading of the situation is that our strategy of earlier meeting the Minister confirmed that voluntary access reasonableness coupled with clear lines in the sand is working agreements are the way forward and that canoeing is not at the policy level and increasingly at the local level. However acceptable: recent history on access, including the Right to Roam on open moorland and along the entire coast, is a salutary reminder of 1. Where there is potential for environmental damage to the the political imperative for our reasonable approach. river; 2. On those small rivers where there is likely to be a The other challenge is how to enforce voluntary agreements significant risk of conflict between paddlers and anglers; and exclusion areas/times. The ultimate objective has to be that 3. On those rivers where riparian owners, whose permission canoeing is regulated in the same way as angling, ie there are needs to be sought in law for access agreements, would two pre-requisites – a licence for the equipment, and suffer unreasonable interference with the enjoyment of their permission to use it somewhere. Only with a licensing system property. will the public authorities assume any responsibility for enforcement and collect revenue from users whose interests On rivers with Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Special they promote. Areas of Conservation, Natural England may become involved

HYDROGENERATION – THE THREAT CONTINUES

3 During the last year, the increased pressure for development of hydrogeneration on our rivers has manifested itself in the form of proposed developments at many sites.

The pressure comes from the drive for more renewable energy; effective lobbying by the British Hydropower Association; financial incentives; and ‘green fashion’ - all supported by the Environment Agency. This would be perfectly acceptable if the correct balance can be achieved between this pressure and protection of fisheries. Unfortunately, and despite considerable efforts by this Association, Angling Trust and the Salmon and Trout Association, the correct balance has yet to be reached. Our demands are that:

 The Environment Agency fully complies with its statutory duty to ‘Maintain, Improve and Develop Fisheries’

 The NASCO Treaty requirement to apply the Precautionary Principle is applied when considering the impacts of hydrogenation on salmon rivers

 Habitats Directive Special Areas of Conservation for salmon are fully protected – this includes most Dartmoor rivers and the Camel

4  There is no obstruction to upstream or downstream migration

 There is no diversion of smolts or adults from their natural route

 There is effective screening to prevent fish passing through damaging turbines

 Wetted areas between offtakes and returns are maintained to protect juvenile production

 There are adequate flow protection measures, including Hands Off Flows

 Licences are time limited, to allow monitoring of the effects of the scheme, with no automatic renewal

 All fisheries protection work, including monitoring, is paid for by developers either directly or from the Water Resources budget – the ‘Abstractor Pays Principle’

 There is accurate flow measurement, visible to fisheries interests

These demands are in line with the Institute of Fisheries Management’s position statement on hydrogeneration.

Input by our members is considerably hampered by the Agency’s transfer of Abstraction Licensing to National Permitting Centres and unwillingness to share their assessment of the fisheries impacts of proposals with us. Some developers and their consultants are prepared to engage in pre-application discussions but where they are not we only have three weeks to make input on advertised applications. To put the environmental benefits into perspective, the two largest schemes currently under consideration in the South West produce a maximum of 50 and 80 kilowatts – the average electric kettle uses two or three kilowatts.

‘Hydropower should only be considered green energy if there is no negative impact on fish’ - European Symposium ‘From Source to Sea’ HATCHERIES – NEW GROUP LEADS THE WAY

At its meeting in October, SWRA Council agreed to establish a group to coordinate best practice learnt from the various artificial propagation schemes across the region. Nick Lintott from the Lynher took up the challenge of leading the group which produced the following statement of intent when it met at Bicton on the Lynher in February.

‘WESTCOUNTRY RIVERS HATCHERY FORUM

This group has been established at the instigation of the South West Rivers Association in conjunction with the Westcountry Rivers Trust. It was considered by both organisations that a means for bringing together the various hatchery projects in the area, and the creation of a pool of experience, could be of mutual benefit to all individual interests.

The Forum is seen primarily as a means of sharing knowledge and information and formulating coherent reasoning and justification for the establishment and development of hatchery projects.

The Forum will also work towards the formulation of Best Practice Principles in such areas as:

 regulatory procedures  chemical treatment, stripping and egg handling

 recording and reporting protocols  rearing on and stocking criteria

 broodstock collection and holding  hatchery design

Other common areas of reference may develop.

A fundamental of the Forum is that individual projects retain their existing independence, reference and contact channels with the Environment Agency, given the current absence of a consistent regional Agency policy on hatcheries.

The Forum shall have no power to direct the operation of individual hatchery projects but shall endeavour to provide a shared pool of knowledge to enable a more effective hatchery programme to develop in the region.

5 The Forum shall look to the Westcountry Rivers Trust as a means of developing research into the effectiveness of hatchery projects as a whole, and will seek to obtain members’ co-operation in the provision of practical support for projects that the Trust may develop.

In the event that the Forum, in conjunction with the South West Rivers Association and the Westcountry Rivers Trust, considers fundamental issues or guidance in relation to hatcheries require discussion or negotiation with the Environment Agency, it shall be the channel for so doing.

The aim of the Forum is to establish a cohesive approach to hatchery performance in the region, whilst maintaining individual autonomy, thus optimising performance internally, but where necessary acting as a unified voice in regard to the broader overall control exercised by the Environment Agency.’

It is expected that the formation of the Group and the involvement of Westcountry Rivers Trust will enable positive dialogue with the Environment Agency and avoid excessive restriction on our activities.

6 BEAVERS – NO THANKS

South West Water’s plans to introduce beavers to the catchment of Roadford Lake in the Tamar system have yet to materialise but are still a cause for concern. SWRA’s position was presented by our Secretary to a seminar in November. The key points were:

 Virtually none of the UK is ‘natural’  Rivers are key wildlife habitats in a heavily managed landscape

 No UK river is untouched by human activity  For over 800 years the West Devon environment has been managed without beavers – this is an introduction, not a  We live in a managed environment reintroduction

 West Devon is all managed with no natural predators of beaver  Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences (LUC) – eg mink, grey squirrel  True ‘Rewilding’ is impossible in most of the UK  Focus on LUC – it’s nearly always Bad Luc!  South West rivers are relatively small – beaver dams will be across them , not along as in larger rivers  Apply the Precautionary Principle

 Sea Trout are as important as Salmon and use small tributaries  If in doubt, DON’T DO IT!

The Environment Agency’s position complements ours: ‘We remain concerned regarding the possible introduction of beaver to the wider Tamar catchment and especially their potential to impact upon migratory salmonid populations. In particular, juvenile salmon habitat and the sedimentation of in stream gravels which could occur through the formation of dams and lodges.’

LOCAL ACTION - IT’S NOT ALL ‘BIG PICTURE’

Much of this Newsletter is concerned with high level matters. Our input to these benefits enormously from the experience gained when supporting individual river associations in their work. Some examples of local involvement include:

 Supporting the Axe in its negotiations with the Agency over hatchery proposals and habitat work

 Helping the Otter comment on proposed changes to groundwater abstraction licences

 Advising the Exe on its major partnership project with the Agency, Westcountry Rivers Trust, and Exmoor National Park; on two hydropower proposals; and on its canoe agreement negotiations

 Working with the Dart and Teign on an Angling Trust local campaign to reduce existing abstractions for water supply and hydropower at many sites;

 Advising the Teign on three new hydrogenerationPAUL proposals ELIOT 1947 – 2009

Paul EliotSupporting was a dedicated the Dart Councilon its canoeing Member negotiations and, with his and family, a major received hydropower the Stuart proposal Gardiner at the Award head offor tide Conservation at the AGM in 2005. The following obituary by Tyson Jackson, appeared in Trout and Salmon and the Fowey River Association Newsletter:  Working with the Erme and Yealm association on a major proposed waste disposal development on the bank of the Yealm ‘Paul Eliot died peacefully at home on 4th September after a heroic battle with cancer. Bravely borne took on a new meaning with Paul, whenHelping faced the with Fowey the oppose terminal a proposed news a few350-tonne months rainbow ago, promptly trout rearing got outunit; of on his the hospital development bed and of itsset Association off to beat and a few its work,of his including the use of Wainsford Hatchery, fisheries surveys and habitat improvement lifetime coarse fishing bests. Naturally he duly bettered his roach, rudd and carp records, though his lifetime tench got away.  Supporting the Camel and Fowey over South West Water’s plans to use disused china clay pits for public water supply This approach to life seemed to come naturally to Paul ever since he arrived to retire in Cornwall some 14 years ago. However Paul did not know the meaning of retiring, or sometimes even the meaning of impossible, as he quickly proved by personal demonstration.  Advising the Lyn on its canoe agreement and a hydrogeneration proposal Many may only remember him for the building of the salmon hatchery at Wainsford over the past 10 years, however that was just a small part in his hectic daily schedule. After all, there were cottages to be built, pools to be created, ponds to be dug, spawning beds In all of this the increased experience and capability in the member associations of SWRA is a good base for the development of future to be constructed, and guests to be entertained. At Wainsford, Paul and his ever supportive wife Irene, plus his loyal band of cohorts, partnership working with the Agency and Rivers Trust. quickly established one of the Westcountry’s most attractive holiday destinations and Paul has taken great delight in seeing youngsters catching their first ever fish. The hatchery was soon under construction, and then expansion, and is now capable of producing a hundred thousand juvenile salmon a year, giving much improved sport to all anglers on both his adopted R. Fowey of which he was so passionate, and also on the nearby R. Camel.

Paul was more aware than others that time is precious, and so his determination to crack on did not always fit snugly in those bureaucratic circles that govern our lives, which occasionally brought stress and frustration to his desired speed of progress. Luckily Paul possessed an abundance of humour plus a tinge of cunning, and he was able to carry on at a gallop, while others lagged behind. Fortunately space, and the fifth amendment, do not permit me to7 recount some of his many deeds and escapades, however suffice to say Paul achieved more in those short 14 years than most of us can dream of doing in a lifetime.’