The Yorkshire Derwent Catchment Partnership’s key aims are:

1. Ensure a resilient catchment through community engagement and promoting integrated, sustainable land management which benefits the rural economy
2. Improve water level management, reducing flood risk and preserving water resources
3. Secure better soil conservation and water quality
4. Create extensive habitat connectivity and species resilience
5. Ensure good partnership governance and develop a robust evidence base

The Partnership works towards these aims through a wide range of collaborative projects with our partners. We have determined a number of SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) targets, which sit underneath our five aims. For more detailed information on our work please see our Catchment Management Plan, latest newsletter and Annual Report which are available to download below.

The Derwent Upland Streams Project, funded by the Environment Agency’s Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF) has been working with landowners to address pollution and sediment issues since 2021. Only 14% of English rivers are classified as meeting good ecological status, without increased efforts to tackle water quality it is predicted this figure will drop to 7% of rivers by 2027. Pollution is a major factor in driving this decline. Since 2022 the team have conducted over 26km of walkover surveys across 8 priority waterbodies to identify sediment issues and engage with land managers.

Following agreement with a number of land managers, a suite of measures were delivered, to improve farm infrastructure and tackle sediment input into these watercourses. Over 1km of new fence lines were installed, restricting cattle access to rivers. The pressure of cattle in these areas can erode riverbanks, regularly releasing soil and other organic pollutants into waterbodies. 85 new trees were planted between the fence line and the river, enhancing a new buffer strip. The buffer strip performs a crucial function, stabilising riverbanks, capturing fine sediment which is washed off the surface of the field in heavy rainfall, preventing it from reaching the river channel and improving habitat availability and connectivity along the riparian corridor.

We worked with landowners, including the North York Moors National Park, to install two new solar powered cattle drinking troughs at separate farms. This innovative technology uses solar power to pump water from existing waterbodies into a drinking trough without the need for mains water. This provides safe drinking water for cattle in remote locations, without the need for livestock to drink directly from the river. Two new piped culverts were created, and three badly eroded gateways were reinforced with stone at the Hole of Horcum to reduce sedimentation into Levisham beck. In total over 4km of watercourse was enhanced by measures delivered in year 2 of the project and a number of recommendations made for delivery in future years.

From April 2023 we will be delivering, in partnership with the Environment Agency, a two-year NFM project across the River Dove catchment in North Yorkshire. Urban areas within the catchment such as Kirkbymoorside, Keldholme and Kirkby Mills have a history of flooding, with many properties effected by a combination of surface water run-off and high river levels. The River Dove NFM project builds on feasibility reports commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council and Kirkbymoorside Town Council and aims to reduce flood risk to 10 of the worst affected properties in Keldholme and Kirkby Mills.

We will do this by working with land managers and key stakeholders across the wider catchment area to co-design features which work with natural processes to reduce surface run-off, slow the flow of water and store floodwater during high rainfall events. In practice this could include a wide range of features which have been proven to reduce flood peaks in existing NFM schemes, including, but not limited to, ponds, scrapes, swales, hedge & tree planting, leaky barriers, run-off features, new livestock fencing and floodplain storage areas. It is important that we ensure that any features that are introduced are delivered in the right place, and align with existing rural businesses and communities. Many of the measures delivered will have multiple benefits, creating new, and enhancing existing habitats, improving water quality and increasing carbon sequestration. We have started engaging with major landowners in the area to identify initial opportunities for working together, to reduce flood risk to the local communities within the Dove catchment.

In April 2022, we secured funding from Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity Enhancement Programme for an exciting project focusing on four important species: tansy beetle, greater water parsnip, willow tit and narrow leaved water dropwort. We hope to strengthen the resilience of these species from the risks and effects of climate change and wider habitat loss. The project is being delivered by mixture of hands-on conservation with local volunteers and mapping and research.

The tansy plant is the food plant of the tansy beetle, a rare insect found on only two sites in England. We will plant tansy at two sites in the Lower Derwent Valley (Wheldrake Ings and Barmby on the Marsh) and assess the feasibility of potentially translocating the tansy beetle from the river Ouse. These ark sites located on higher ground will secure additional populations which will be protected in times of summer flooding.

Greater water parsnip is a native wetland plant, once widespread,  it now only exists in a small number of isolated wetland sites in England. We will translocate plants and monitor the success of this translocation in the hope that it can be replicated on other sites in the future.

There are breeding willow tit on Wheldrake Ings, a species that has declined by 94% between 1970 and 2012. Volunteers will survey and identify exactly where the birds are breeding and identify gaps in the habitat that could be linked up either through habitat management (coppicing old willow) or through planting additional scrub. The breeding territories were mapped during summer 2022 and habitat works (coppicing, standing deadwood) was completed in winter 2022.

The rare narrow leaved water dropwort is only recorded at Wheldrake Ings in Yorkshire, which makes it particularly vulnerable from the increasing unseasonal flooding in recent years. The project will see seed harvested and grown on, with potential sites identified to translocate the plants to help bolster the population.

Barmby Marsh, a 3.17ha Site of Special Scientific Interest, is currently classed as being in ‘unfavourable’ condition. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, with funding from the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water began work in  2019 to restore this site to its original wetland habitat. The work has focused on removing encroaching scrub with help from volunteers,  Friends of the LDV and the local community.  The exsisting scrapes were then de-vegetation in 2021 with funding from Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity Enhancement Programme.

Access to the reserve is limited, with no public access or viewing areas. Visitor experience panels were produced including an identification guide to wetland birds you may see. Viewing areas were also created to allow visitors to enjoy the beauty of the site without creating disturbance to the wildlife.

The effects are already noticeable, with the reserve seeing a return of wetland species including common snipe, gadwalls and teal, with otter prints also spotted along the riverbank.

Ryevitalise is a four year, £3.4 million Landscape Partnership Scheme supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, North York Moors National Park Authority and partners, and inspired by local communities and helps deliver YDCP’s aims.

The project team work with volunteers and communities to conserve, enhance and restore the natural and cultural heritage of the area, enabling people to reconnect with the history, wildlife and landscapes of the River Rye and its tributaries. Ryevitalise is delivering a suite of projects across three delivery themes; water quality and the environment, water level management and reconnecting people.

The team is based within the North York Moors National Park Authority and Ryevitalise will be delivered by a partnership of over 15 organisations working together to reach their common goals across this part of the River Rye catchment. Works are wide ranging, covering areas such as habitat management and invasive species control, exploring local cultural and built heritage, improving public footpaths, wildlife surveying, promoting best practice between land managers and grant funding interventions to improve the water environment.

YDCP is one of the delivery partners where we will be helping to deliver/support two discrete projects within the four year programme, INNS and Water Level Management. The YDCP Officer has attended three meetings with the Ryevitalise team so far and sits on the Ryevitalise Steering Group.

Practical activity on the ground is now underway, and collaborative partnership meetings are progressing well.

For more information and how you can get involved, click here: www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/ryevitalise

The Environment Agency have begun the process of updating the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) for 2021. The plans are designed to protect and improve the quality of our water environment, promoting ecosystem services and supporting wildlife. Following on from the ‘Working Together’ consultation at the end of 2018, the ‘Challenges and Choices’ consultation is seeking views from organisations, partnerships and members of the public on water related topics from water level issues to plastic pollution.

The Yorkshire Derwent Catchment Partnership, located in the Humber basin, responded to this consultation on a partnership level and our response is published on our website. We held a successful workshop for partners in February 2020 focusing on the 27 consultation questions, which enabled YRDCP to collate a true partnership response.  We also recommended that partners should respond separately to YDCP, to represent different aspects and priorities from their organisation compared to that on a larger catchment scale.