No reports of any new fish at present!
Good
Afternoon
I
am pleased to share with you the latest quarterly River Wye Management
Catchment Integrated Data Analysis Report, as well as details about an
early warning system the Environment Agency has developed to monitor algal
blooms on the River Wye. This is part of our role of monitoring and analysing
water quality and working with partners and stakeholders to have a common
understanding of the issues, plan appropriate measures and take relevant
action.
Quarterly Report
Latest updates:
·
For the first time, Citizen Science data has been included in the
analyses, which is a fantastic step towards in combining more data
sources to help identify and prioritise where measures can be
targeted to reduce the inputs of pollution. We are very grateful and supportive of Citizen
Scientists for their energy and work.
·
We have developed an algal monitoring programme to determine
whether free floating or benthic algae is more of a problem and whether this
interaction changes over the course of a bloom event.
·
Significant reduction in nutrient input from all sources is
required across the whole catchment to contribute to the recovery of river
quality. Reducing run-off and leaching of nutrients from land during summer
rainfall events when dilution is low, and temperatures are high is an important
element of this remedial activity.
·
The five below areas have been identified as upstream parts of the
catchment with high phosphate concentrations relative to the wider catchment,
taking the size of watercourse into account. They also experience a high
proportion of the pressures identified in the report. We recommend all
contributing partners in the Wye catchment take a catchment-based approach in
these focus areas:
o River Arrow near Kington
o River Arrow near Pembridge and Curl Brook
o River Lugg and tributaries near Presteigne
o Little Lugg and Withington Marsh Brook
o River Frome
·
Efforts to increase shade by tree planting and better management
of riparian trees could help mitigate high temperatures. We are developing a
high temperature and algal bloom early warning system to enable us to respond
to excessive temperatures with advice and extra monitoring (more detail is
given below).
·
You can access
the report using the following link: Wye_Report_Q4_2021_22.pdf
(environment-agency.gov.uk)
·
Please also see the attached infographic for a visual summary of
the report
Early
Warning System
The
Environment Agency have developed an early warning system to assess the river
temperature and water quality. We have scaled up our monitoring, incident
planning and response, and inform stakeholders if there are high water
temperatures and/or possible algal blooms. Please see the attached document
that details more information.
Citizen Space
We
have updated our dedicated Citizen Space webpage reflecting the latest
information detailed above. Additionally, we have included some new headlines
on the site following feedback from the previous quarterly report which I hope
you find useful and interesting.
Please share
this email with your contacts and signpost people to the webpage, early warning
system and report. Please also
bear in mind that these tools are in their early stages – we will improve the
contents overtime and welcome your feedback.
With best
wishes
Grace
Grace Wight
Area Environment Manager | Herefordshire and
Worcestershire
Environment Agency | West Midlands
For further information please contact the
Customers & Engagement Team:
Tel: 02030 251583 | Email: engagement_westmids@environment-agency.gov.uk
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