SUMMER 2018 39

Action for the River talk A PARTNERSHIP OF PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT THE KENNET

Water Catchment Summit ARK were pleased to take part in the recent Water Catchment Summit.

This important national event brought together 120 experts and thought leaders from business, agriculture, regulation, academia, government, the public sector and rivers trusts to explore innovative ways to address the challenges of catchment management.

Across the country, management of our rivers has moved beyond the river corridor to look at how we all use water, dispose of it, manage land and design drainage. No one body can do this alone, which is why catchment partnerships have become so important. A call to action by His Royal there are some excellent examples Participants included M&S, Nestlé, Highness The Prince of Wales here today.’ Coca Cola and Asda, eleven water companies and major players in the The Summit was convened at ARK is a signatory to the Catchment sector including the Chief Executives the direct request of His Royal Declaration which we hope will drive of Ofwat and Water UK, Chair of the Highness The Prince of Wales, who a collaborative and holistic approach Environment Agency, Richard Benyon addressed the event. He began by to managing our water resources in MP and Lord Gardiner of Kimble. saying ‘it seems to me that effective future. water management is both local Charlotte Hitchmough The Kennet was highlighted by and organised around the natural Richard Benyon as an example of catchments which have been Photo: Richard Benyon MP addresses the positive steps already taken shaped by a combination of natural the Water Catchment Summit. to improve the management forces and human activity over of catchments, but the summit millennia’ and concluded with the recognised that more needs to be sentiment that ‘ensuring a healthy STOP PRESS... done. Water is a shared resource future for all our rivers will quite On Sunday 1 July Thames that is critical to the success of clearly require unprecedented Water experienced its highest everyone, from customers and their levels of collaboration, with genuine ever demand for water – 20% communities through to companies cross-sector working coordinated more than usual. After six weeks without rain, the message is and regulators; each has a vitally through dynamic and well-resourced clear: we’ve all got to SAVE IT! important role to play. catchment partnerships – and again

Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 2

News from the Chairman Things are changing for the River Kennet.

Over the last six months there have driving agriculture forward are vital ARK is very appreciative of Thames been a number of suggestions to the River Kennet. The right land Water’s efforts in constructing the about how the management of our management along the river corridor North-South Swindon link which countryside might alter over the will help protect the health and has ended abstraction at Ogbourne coming years. These changes are not beauty of the river; if it’s wrong, and reduced, at times, the amount of only the result of Brexit but reflect it won’t. water taken from Axford. However, the government’s pledge to leave the we still have concerns about the environment in a better condition for overall impact of abstraction: future generations. It goes without • too much water is lost as a saying that the River Kennet will not result of its export to Swindon be immune to what happens in the – instead of being fed back into world around it. the Kennet catchment after use it is discharged directly into the In May the Secretary of State for River Thames the Environment, Michael Gove, • the River Kennet flow trigger for announced a review of England’s Axford reduction is set far too National Parks and Areas of low – the reduction occurs too Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) late to provide relief – major blocks of land designated • the impacts of abstraction above for their nationally important natural Marlborough are still not being beauty. The relevance of this to the addressed. River Kennet is that it rises in and passes through the North Wessex We have recently met with Thames Downs AONB. Water and have agreed with them to And finally, to the essence of the work together to find some answers. When the UK leaves the EU the River Kennet – its water. Every five Common Agricultural Policy years the water companies explain Whether it is impacts of Brexit, the (CAP) will cease to apply to British how they will meet drinking water government’s ambition to leave the farming. In England the government demand over at least the next 25 environment in a better shape for department responsible for farming years. The latest round of these Water future generations, or how we work and the environment, DEFRA, has Resource Management Plans (WRMP) with the water utility companies, been set a single principle for a new have been out for consultation this things are a changing for the River independent British Agricultural spring and ARK has commented in Kennet. Let’s hope they turn out to be Policy: that it should shift the focus detail on Thames Water’s WRMP. for the better! of subsidy from production to paying ‘public money for public goods’. ARK supports Thames Water’s targets Richard Clarke for reducing leakage, but we are less The Environmental Land impressed when considering the Photo: Reading’s Holy Brook: one of the Management Schemes that will Swindon and Oxford (SWOX) zone special places we need to protect. replace CAP will have to be up and and the impacts of abstraction on the running by the end of 2022. Policies River Kennet. Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 3

Listen closely to the Brook, Sportfish for through it flows time itself Game The hallowed waters of the Holy Brook. Fishing Fair Some 6 miles (10km) in length, Meadows to the south before flowing the origin of this Kennet side into central Reading where only ARK was recently invited to channel remains unclear although fleeting glimpses are available before exhibit at this important archaeological surveys carried out it re-joins the Kennet to the south of event in the angling in 1985 provided evidence of earlier Abbey Church ruins. meanders and marsh, suggesting a calendar. natural watercourse that ran north of There is something special about the main river below Theale. this little Brook and ARK are currently The Sportfish Game Fishing Fair supporting passionate organisations was held over two days in May at What is certain is that the channel and individuals with two project a location near Reading. Situated has undergone modification, most proposals that will benefit its upper in a large marquee, alongside significantly following the foundation and middle reaches. representatives from the leading of Reading Abbey in 1121 when brands in the world of game it was adapted by resident monks Using funding made available fishing, we displayed a variety of to create fishponds and power the through the Kennet Valley Fisheries invertebrates which we netted out of Abbey Mill and a second mill at Association and supported by the the nearby brook. Calcot. Modifications in the 17th local Environment Agency Fisheries Century saw the revetment and Team, the projects will include Passers-by were fascinated by culverting of 600 metres of the lower gravel cleaning, the introduction of the numbers and diversity of channel, partly achieved using stone brash berms and the enhancement invertebrates, the show-stoppers from the Abbey. of redundant ox bow bends and being the large mayfly nymphs. These ditches, which will together improve were soon to hatch into the winged Today the Holy Brook (illustrated habitat quality and create new insects which fishermen and women opposite) forms a natural boundary habitat for juvenile fish. imitate when trying to catch trout between residential suburbs to with dry flies. the north and the Kennet Flood Martin Kent Also popular were cased caddisfly larvae, emerging from their intricate homes made of stones or tiny pieces One of the gardens of vegetation. that caught our It was most encouraging that so attention at the RHS much interest was shown in our stand which displayed all aspects of Chelsea this year. our work to enhance the river Kennet. The fishing community are direct The ‘Urban Flow’ designed by Tom beneficiaries of our custodianship Woods from the Garden Club London. of the river and several signed up to It demonstrated how excess rainwater become members. can be diverted and used as part of a garden design at home to reduce flood We are grateful to Sportfish for risk and minimize water consumption. inviting us and, also, for subsidising The garden was sponsored by Thames the cost of waders for our volunteers. Water. For more about rain gardens turn to page 4. Sean Dempster Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 4

Catching the rain ARK has recently completed another Rainscapes project.

In an ever-urbanising world, it is vital Pipes funnel any overflow to a that we create places for sudden lower-lying rain garden. The design downpours of rain to slowly permeate is inspired by chalk streams and into the ground, rather than rushing incorporates a sinuous dry chalk into our rivers, taking with them nasty riverbed and hazel faggots. pollutants picked up on the way. A few weeks later, Wendy and her Guided by award-winning sustainable team constructed a second rain garden designer and Ramsbury garden at Ramsbury’s brand-new resident Wendy Allen, ARK volunteers pre-school, which means local and parents worked extremely hard children now have two different alongside our Project Officer Anna to chances to learn about the deliver an eye-catching rain garden importance of caring for our full of plants that can cope with vital water. sudden deluges of rain – and long dry periods too. As well as being enjoyed by the school children, we hope that Three galvanised metal storm-water these projects may also inspire planters have transformed the front their parents to create spaces for garden of the school and now make Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems use of rain water coming from a (SuDS) in their own gardens. downpipe. They encompass a water wheel and a torricelli tube downpipe Anna Forbes that are powered by rain water and make everyone think about water.

periods, so you need to choose plants Plants for which can tolerate both wet and dry conditions. These perennials are some we have found work in our own rain gardens gardens. at home For height and colour: Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’, Verbena bonariensis, Rain gardens represent a Astrantia major ‘Roma’ and A. major radical change in how we ‘Shaggy’. manage rainfall. For year round greenery: Bletchnum spicant; Cyrtomium At their simplest they are just planted fortunei, Polystitchum munitum, P. depressions which capture and polyblepharum, P. ‘Herennhausen’, release water. Technically known as Vinca minor ‘Argenteovariegata’, ‘bio-retention areas’, they harness Deschampsia ‘Schottland’, Bergenia the power of plants, microbes and ‘Bressingham White’ and Hedera ‘Oro chrysographes, Podophyllum peltatum soils to control the quantity and di Bogliasco’ and Ophiopogon planiscapus quality of water in the landscape. ‘Nigrescens’, can cope with moist Most domestic gardens present We have also had success with soil but also lie dormant or sustain opportunities to capture rainfall from several varieties of dogwood and minimum growth during long roofs and paths into rain-garden climbers including honeysuckle periods of drought. areas or formal storm-water planters. (Lonicera japonica reptans or So, what to plant? ‘Dropmore Scarlett). For more advice take a look at the rain garden section of our website. The key thing to remember is that Rhizomatous and bulbous plants, rain gardens are only wet for short including Iris versicolor, Iris Charlotte Hitchmough Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 5

Another ARK celebrates feather in a big birthday our cap! This year we are celebrating ten years of ARK Trout in ARK’s Water Matters Schools, part of our Water Matters project in partnership partnership with Thames with Thames Water. Water gets the Global Good thumbs up.

Anna, Sean and I had an exciting trip to London with our Thames Water partners to attend the ‘Global Good’ awards held on 16 May in the elegant surroundings of BMA House. The event celebrated projects, businesses This year five schools in the Kennet of its tributaries to release their fish and organisations working to make catchment have spent three months into their natural environment to the world a better place. raising baby trout (alevins). Along continue their life cycle. the way, through our school visit We entered our ‘Water Matters’ activities, the children have been Through these projects we are partnership with Thames Water, learning how their trout and all the helping students make a connection which has worked with over 1,000 other species that live in and by a with their local river and understand school children and 500 adults in the chalk river depend on unpolluted more about it. Sometimes children Kennet catchment each year. Since and well oxygenated water. have no idea what lives in the Kennet it began the project has provided or that the water they use at home or opportunities to learn about the river The survival rates were very high school has an impact on how much is and its wildlife, and what everyone this year, which demonstrates the left to reach the river. can do to make sure that we all have commitment from teachers and their enough clean drinking water in our students who diligently cared for Our Water Matters project was homes as well as lovely flowing rivers these sensitive fish, carrying out daily recently recognised by the Global in our communities. temperature checks, water changes, Good Awards UK at a ceremony at feeding and tank-cleaning. BMA House, London when ARK and We were rewarded with a ‘one to Thames Water received a ‘One to watch’ award in the ‘Partnership in the Eels in School is also currently Watch’ award. Community’ category. We are thrilled, underway, with four schools learning and our thanks go to Thames Water about and nurturing little wild glass Anna Forbes and the Global Good Awards team for eels that are developing into elvers. both an entertaining evening and the Photo: Kennet Valley Primary School opportunity to promote a project that The final sessions for both projects releasing their eels into the River Kennet we are very proud of. is when classes get to be in a local at Clatford Arboretum. stretch of the River Kennet or one Charlotte Hitchmough Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 6

South West Is this the next Beast Streams Farmer Group from the East?

Every farmer in the UK loves The Marbled Crayfish has been causing a storm in the the countryside and we all world’s media. think we live in the most beautiful part of it.

We can do nothing about the weather that is thrown at us, but we do have influence over and responsibility for how the countryside looks and how its wildlife, rivers and trees are cared for.

To help with this task, the owners of 10,000 acres (4000ha) of land on either side of the A338 between and Burbage are forming a Farmer Cluster with the support of the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund. This will allow them to cooperate so that the areas of each farm which are managed Unknown before 1995 when it was model organism for studying both with the environment in mind can first discovered within the German the rapid generation of species and all link together. Our aim is to create pet trade, Procambarus marmorkrebs the development and treatment pathways and networks across our has become famous for its unusual of cancerous tumours that occur countryside which enable the wildlife reproduction characteristics and its through the cloning of a single cell. to travel and thrive. potential for invasion. Banned in the EU, there have been Our block of land includes the Thought to be the mutant female no reported wild examples in Great sources of the River Dun at Wilton offspring of two American slough Britain. However, marmorkrebs and the River Shal at . crayfish, it is the only known decapod has steadily been increasing its These two spring-fed chalk streams crustacean to reproduce through distribution since 1995 and is flow eastward and join the river parthenogenesis, a natural form of recorded across three continents, Kennet at Hungerford. The quality asexual reproduction in which the including European countries such as of both streams is exceptional, and growth and development of embryos Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and this must be maintained though occurs without fertilization. Sweden. Definitely one visitor we do continuous careful management of not want after Brexit! the surrounding farm and woodland. If that was not enough, marmorkrebs is also a triploid species. This means More details on this and other non- The formation of the South West all offspring are genetic clones native species can be found at the Streams Farmer Group will bring of their single female parent and GB Non-Native Species Secretariat: everyone together with a common all possess the same epigenetic www.nonnativespecies.org purpose to maintain our beautiful mechanisms which allow them countryside and safeguard the quality to manipulate genes in their DNA Martin Kent of its rivers and groundwater. in order to better adapt to their environment. Little wonder, then, Photo: C Chucholl, Wikimedia Commons Peter Lemon that marmorkrebs has become a Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 7

Fish passages From the

We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we’ve got to go ARKive through it!

Sometimes an Angler by Henry G Maurice

This delightful volume of natural history and fishing reminiscences was published in 1947. Maurice, That was Michael Rosen’s conclusion by blowing it up, knocking it down or who went on to become President in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. I just removing a section. of the Zoological Society of London, sometimes think that a fish might was one of ten sons brought up on have the same thoughts as it tries to Usually the approach to take is the Upper Kennet at Manton. In a swim along the Kennet and meets the dictated by the setting. Gauging chapter entitled ‘Young Barbarians’ he obstacles we have put in the way over stations might still be collecting describes ‘minnow-dapping’, which the centuries. useful water-level data to help warn was the recognised method of fishing of flood risk, or monitor the impacts the Kennet above Marlborough We know that healthy fish populations of water abstraction. Leaving the where mayfly, even in those days, need access to a variety of habitats, structure in place but putting ‘baffles’ were non-existent. and to be able to swim upstream as on it to break up the laminar flow so the winterbournes flow, and retreat fish can tackle the obstacle in stages The author also describes the downstream as they dry up. But over can work well. annual netting of the river which his time man has constructed mills, father maintained was necessary to gauging stations, weirs, dams, sluices, Old water mills, which have since been maintain a healthy stock of fish. The culverts and syphons, without much converted to homes, are sensitive boys were kitted out in ‘dragging thought about the impact on fish. settings and often the best option is to clothes’, their job being to step inside create a new bypass channel around the circle of net and use their hands Working with the Environment the obstacle. The new stream can to catch the fish. All trout over a Agency, ARK has been gradually create valuable spawning habitat as pound in weight were removed, making these structures passable to an additional benefit. But sometimes the process took two days and the fish and eels, so that the river and its it is possible to take the obstacle away average catch was 100 brace! These tributaries become accessible to as all together – for instance, hatches were then distributed on foot or by many species as possible. There are built to flood old water meadows long cart to their father’s circle of friends. usually three options to each obstacle: since gone, or weirs kept to hold river 1. Go over it (using a fish ladder or levels up to feed ornamental ponds. Sean Dempster eel tile), 2. Go round it (by creating a bypass channel) or 3. Go through it – Charlotte Hitchmough Action for River Kennet Newsletter 39 SUMMER 2018 PAGE 8

ARK People Dates for Your Diary Sunday 29 July Karen Davies OUDS perform William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on the banks of the river at Harbrook, Ramsbury. Tickets are £25 For 16 years I have worked with please contact [email protected] farmers and landowners in the Kennet Catchment. As a Catchment Sensitive Saturday 1 September Farming Officer my main focus is ARK Members Summer River Walk at the beautiful on improving water quality in the Avington Estate, start anytime between 2–3pm. Tea Kennet and Lambourn by encouraging and cakes for sale from the fishing hut. Circular walk, voluntary measures on farms to reduce approximately 4.5 miles (a shorter route will also be sediment, phosphate and nitrate loss available). Full details including car parking and starting from fields and yards. point will soon be on our website.

Philip Wells Tuesday 13 November ARK’s AGM will be held at 6.30pm in Hungerford Town Hall My childhood was spent in Hungerford, swimming and playing For more details on all these events see our website or in the rivers Kennet and Dun. They contact [email protected] are special to me. After a career in the Royal Air Force, I returned to the North Wessex Downs with its chalk streams and like in my childhood can’t wait to Websites Worth Visiting paddle. Thank you ARK. The Wessex Chalk Philip is a riverfly monitor, redd Stream & Rivers Trust spotter and volunteers at our practical is an environmental restoration tasks. charity dedicated to the conservation and David Hill restoration of the fragile and globally important chalk-based ecosystems of rivers in the Wessex I grew up on the Wylye in region. The Trust’s catchments of the Dorset Stour, paddling in the river and jam-jar the Avon, the Test, the Itchen and the Meon contain fishing for minnows. Poacher-turned- many of the most iconic examples of this rare and gamekeeper, I am now a land agent important habitat. managing Barton Court Estate and Avington Estate fisheries on the To find out more please visit: www.wcsrt.org.uk Kennet as well as Eling Estate on the Pang. I get a great pleasure from managing successful fisheries whilst enhancing the river and surrounding land for natural habitat, seeing the return of rarer native species of birds, Learn how you can support ARK every time bugs, fish and mammals to the valley. you shop online just visit: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/arkactionfortheriverkennet

Members of ARK receive a copy of this We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter newsletter either by mail or email. and if you have any comments or ideas for Action for the River Kennet future issues, do please pass them on! Avebury, Elcot Park, Elcot Lane If you’d like to find out more about Marlborough SN8 2BG ARK, volunteering opportunities or membership please visit our website Edited by Rowan Whimster t: 01672 512 700 e: [email protected] at www.riverkennet.org or email ([email protected]) Registered charity number: 1120725 [email protected] Printed on 100% recycled paper