Chalk Stream Strategy
Find out about the latest update on the state of our chalk streams and the work of the CaBA Chalk Streams Restoration Group.
Executive Summary
A 2-page summary of the first Annual Review tracking delivery of the plan and reporting progress from 2024/25
Annual Review
Document outlining delivery of the plan and reporting progress from 2024/25
Chalk streams are one of our rarest and most precious freshwater habitats. With most of the world’s chalk streams found in England, restoring and protecting them is a matter of global importance.
England is home to 85% of the world's chalk streams
We have identified just over 280 chalk streams which stretch from west Dorset to Yorkshire and spread across south-east England. All of them put together represent most of the chalk streams in the world, with some also found in Normandy in north-west France. In their natural state, chalk streams are crystal clear, with little sediment, low nutrient levels and stable temperatures of around 10-11ºC, making them a perfect habitat for many plants and wildlife.
Healthy chalk streams feature incredible biodiversity and are home to some of our most iconic river species. These clear-watered streams are a valuable habitat for Atlantic salmon, sea trout, grayling and lamprey, for otters, water voles and kingfishers, for rare invertebrates such as the winterbourne stonefly, and plants like stream water crowfoot. Sadly, like many of our rivers they are heavily impacted by a growing demand for water, pollution and physical modification.
If we are to achieve the goal of our 25-year Environment Plan and leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it, we must address the multiple threats to the ecological health of our chalk streams.
Most of our chalk streams flow through landscapes heavily impacted by agriculture and urban development. They are threatened by water abstraction which denudes the natural flow, by pollution from sewage, farming and roads, by invasive species, and by habitat degradation: canalisation, siltation, ditching and the many barriers built at locks, watermills and culverts. The CaBA Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy represents the collective passion and ambition of all sorts of people and organisations who care about chalk streams and wish to see them restored to full ecological health.
This strategy addresses pressures within the framework of what the group defined as the “trinity of ecological health”, namely: water quantity, water quality and physical habitat quality.
Restoring flow will improve river health by improving water quality and physical habitat. But the benefit of restoring natural flow is greatly increased if water quality and physical habitat are improved too. Improving water quality or physical habitat will likewise enhance the health of the chalk stream although not as much as when natural flow is also restored. Addressing all three of these elements will lead to the greatest improvements in ecological health.
Image credits: Charles Rangeley Wilson
The Chalk Stream Restoration Group Strategy
Executive Summary
Full Report
Report Appendices
What are the key recommendations?
The key recommendation of this strategy is for an overarching level of protection and priority status for chalk streams and their catchments. This would give them a distinct identity and help to drive investment in water-resources infrastructure, water treatment and catchment-scale restoration.
Other recommendations (dealt with in more detail in the main report and appendices) include:
- prioritising chalk streams in the national framework process for planning future water resources
- multiple actions to drive down the nutrient loading of chalk streams to ecologically appropriate levels, including:
- a prioritisation of investment in all sewage treatment works contributing to WFD nutrient failures
- a reduction in the frequency and duration of storm overflows spilling to chalk streams
- a suite of practical farming rules for chalk-stream catchments specifically to address pathways of diffuse agricultural pollution from landscape to river, with farm payment contingent on compliance and with strict enforcement
- using the new Nature Recovery Network (NRN) and Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes to deliver landscape-scale biodiversity gains in chalk catchments, focussing on water quality and hydrological connectivity and the restoration of process-driven recovery in chalk streams and their wider landscape setting
- a national network of flagship full-catchment restorations where all parties in the CaBA partnership will cooperate to enact all aspects of the restoration strategy – addressing flow, pollution and physical habitat in unison
These recommendations represent a broad consensus among the working group of the nature and scale of the threats and problems and of the necessary solutions. It gives clear justifications, direction and guidance to government and businesses, water companies, Rivers Trusts and stakeholders.
Chalk Stream News
Chalk Stream Cunliffe Response
Our recommendations to the Independent Water Commission, April 2025
Chalk Stream Blog
Charles Rangeley Wilson provides regular blogs on current issues affecting our chalk streams.
The Smarter Water Catchment
This project has led to over 140 volunteers collecting citizen science data for the River Chess
Latest news from The Rivers Trust
See how The Rivers Trust is working to protect both chalk streams and all other rivers