New Tree Planting Project Launched To Improve Rivers

The latest from WUF   Really!!!!!    Ten years down the line for perhaps for a very marginal effect if any    Only in England it seems though floods mostly originate in the upper catchment in Wales. Couldn't make it up really but they have.

Saturday 25th September, 2021

Thousands of trees are to be planted in the Wye catchment in England as part of a national project to create new woodland along rivers and watercourses announced by the Forestry Minister Lord Goldsmith today.

Planting the right species of tree in the right location or allowing them to naturally colonise along and around rivers can offer enormous benefits for water quality, flood management, biodiversity and climate resilience. These include improving environments for fish by reducing water temperatures and helping rivers adapt to climate change.

More trees can also provide natural flood management by slowing the flow of water into rivers. They enable rainfall to more easily soak into soils, including those that have become less permeable. The severe floods of the 2019/2020 winter were the cause of the initial and dramatic loss of ranunculus in the Wye. Measures needed to help this vital plant’s recovery include efforts to reduce the severity of winter flooding, not to mention the benefits this also brings to both catchments’ human inhabitants. This is therefore a key action for us in reducing the big floods that are causing so many problems for the rivers.

Trees also help to reduce the amount of agricultural pollution (including phosphorus) getting into rivers by breaking the pathways by which soil and nutrients reach watercourses. They can also help prevent excessive riverbank erosion.