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Ground level view of a meandering river channel.
Townfoot river restoration project

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5 minute read

Better Becks

This £328k natural flood management (NFM) and habitat improvement partnership project shows how working at a catchment scale to identify and install a wide variety of NFM features can help reduce flood risk for vulnerable communities, improve water quality, habitat connectivity and more over a wider area than a small, ad-hoc intervention could achieve.

Overview

Part of project: Natural flood management

Helping to protect communities at risk of flooding has become a cornerstone of our conservation work in recent years. Our changing climate means that we need to find new ways to manage the flow of water from source to sea, especially during floods and drought.

It’s a carefully thought-out process involving research of the areas where interventions are required then working with the landowner to identify and agree the most appropriate measures and techniques from the natural flood management (NFM) toolbox that will work with nature to produce flood protection and create or enhance habitats.

We initially received support from the Environment Agency to carry out natural flood management work in the Cairn Beck catchment but wanted to extend this to other sub-catchments in the area to further reduce the risk of flooding to vulnerable communities.

As the lead partner of the Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme’s Better Becks project and thanks to additional support from Farming in Protected Landscapes with support from the North Pennines AONB Partnership and Slow the Flow from EA, we were able to extend this initial NFM delivery across new catchments in the Fellfoot area such as Glassonby, Gamblesby, Raven and Croglin.

From fencing to ‘re-wiggling’ rivers, between 2020 and 2022 we worked with 14 farms on a wide range of NFM interventions that have helped reduce downstream flood risk, improve water quality, sequester carbon and improve biodiversity.

In the Cairn Beck catchment, we have completed a 5km stretch of connected projects with a river restoration site at each end and hedges, riparian buffer strips, ponds and planting in the middle sections.

Challenge

In the north of the Eden catchment, between the River Eden and the North Pennine fellside, several communities and large areas of agricultural land are designated as being at risk from flooding. 
 

Major flooding events in the area have prompted a regional and national commitment to NFM: reducing flood risk by implementing measures that help to protect and restore the natural functions of rivers and their catchments.
 

Other pressures in this area included degraded peatland; poor water quality; degradation of aquatic and riparian habitats and loss of aquatic species.

Approach

Work in partnership with North Pennines AONB through their Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme and EA to utilise Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques to reduce flood risk on downstream communities and enhance river water quality, riparian habitats and biodiversity.

Completed

  • 14 farms involved
     

  • 6,748m2 of wetland created
     

  • 23 leaky dams created/restored
     

  • 9.37Ha of woodland created
     

  • 99Ha of woodland restored
     

  • 5.7km of buffer strips planted
     

  • 14,835 hedgerow plants in the ground
     

  • 230m of river restored

Key projects completed

Construction of Sumburgh woody debris dam in progress.
Construction of Sumburgh woody debris dam

Creating wetland at Sumburgh

In the upper reaches of the Cairn Beck catchment, a highly straightened, incised ditch with little/no biodiversity present was perfect for the creation of a wetland. We lowered the channel’s banks and created scrapes to allow it to reconnect with its floodplain, infilling some of the channel to allow it to find its natural course and wet the floodplain.

We created two woody debris dams based on Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA’s) which have been used as a river restoration technique in America, allowing water to seep through whilst building up sediment behind them to raise the bed level and encourage water out onto the floodplain. No fish were present in this section so fish movement was not a concern.

Looking along the base of sloped field bank across green paster with trees lining horizon at top of slope in the distance.
Sumburgh before construction started
View of laypool created at base of sloped field bank.
Sumburgh after construction
Looking down onto an example of a large woody debris dam collecting water.
Sumburgh woody debris dam collecting water

River restoration at Townfoot

A 230m stretch of highly straightened and canalised river between areas of naturally meandering sections of river with woodland cover and in-stream woody debris was restored to its pre-modification state, creating natural features – ponds, riffles and in-stream islands along the way. This re-wriggling added 165m to the length of the river.

The addition of fencing and a gate would mean that the field could still be used for light grazing and tree planting. In time, these will help slow down surface water flow and intercept rainfall. The river was reconnected with its floodplain, meaning that more water will be held here for longer during high rainfall instead of racing unchecked towards vulnerable communities.

Funders

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