From source to sea, the Bristol Avon is under continuous pressure by mankind. The river network is affected by agricultural practices (to feed us), flood management (to protect us), abstraction (to supply our water), effluent (from systems that treat our sewage and from industry), or just by our using it for leisure and recreation purposes. There are other problems too, but they are all mainly as a result of the pressures we place on the river network. These pressures will not go away and will increase as populations of local towns and cities increase.
BART recognises these pressures and the need to improve our rivers by collaborative working at a river catchment scale (looking holistically at the whole catchment, including the interactions between land-use and the river network).
BART are charitable co-hosts of the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership, which works with Environmental NGOs, Water Companies, Local Authorities, Government Agencies, Landowners, Angling Clubs, Farmer Representative Bodies, Academia and Local Businesses to deliver a range of environmental, social and economic benefits and helps to protect our precious water environments for the benefit of us all and nature.
The Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) proudly announces the launch of the “Farmer-led Nature Recovery Initiative,” a farm cluster project aimed at fostering sustainable agriculture and ecological resilience across the…
Leaky dams and large woody debris are slowing the flow in Yate Common.
Indicators of Our Success: Beyond the Numbers At Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, we’ve had another dynamic and impactful year. Our team has grown significantly, expanding from 8 to 12 members…
We’ve been out with enthusiastic volunteers adding berms to Stoke Brook, North Bristol.
We have been out in the Pickemoor Rhine adding structure using ‘woody berms’ to this over straightened river.
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) is preparing to deliver work to improve habitat for the critically endangered European Eel, Brown Trout, River Lamprey and other aquatic species on the Cam…
The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world- with species declining, habitats in poor condition and millions of people living without access to nature. In…
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, with the support of a team of local volunteers, have been restoring river habitat along a tributary of the Bristol Frome, the Stoke Brook which flows…
The team at BART have been busy undertaking in-stream habitat restoration on the River Marden near Calne. This work, made possible through funding from Calne Without Parish Council (CWPC), aims…
BART have been busy implementing a Natural Flood Management scheme along the Patchway Brook and the Stoke Brook, both tributaries of the Bristol Frome river. BART have been delivering this…
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) worked in partnership with Bristol City Council and Nature Metrics to carry out a pilot environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis of individual species and communities of…
Simon Hunter, Chief Executive, looks back at BART’s recent achievements Since the Winter 2021 newsletter edition, the public and political focus on rivers and the issues that affect them has arguably been…
Citizen Scientists Assemble! Citizen Scientists can now register to take part in this spring’s Land Yeo RiverBlitz. This is the second year of the project which aims to identify clean…
Julian Greaves, BART’s Chair and one of the founders, reflects on what BART has achieved in the last 10 years. Well, when it was brought to my attention that BART…
The BART team have delivered a series of nature based solutions on a tributary of the River Chew, Bath and North East Somerset. Through the Environment Agency’s Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF),…
BART and a team of local volunteers have been restoring river habitat in Stoke Brook, a tributary of the Bristol Frome which flows through Three Brooks Nature Reserve. During October…
BART is currently planning to deliver the removal of a small weir at Castlefields Park, Calne, Wiltshire, with the aim of improving freshwater habitat throughout the park. This weir…
BART has kicked off its summer programme of works at a farm near Regil, North Somerset, in the headwaters of the Winford Brook catchment. A series of bunded scrapes to capture surface water run off and attenuate…
BART is working in partnership with the Cotswolds Champions Programme from the Cotswolds National Landscape to assess the condition of the Little Avon headwaters which rise within the Cotswold AONB.…
Working collaboratively with Avon Wildlife Trust, BART will deliver and promote a catchment-based approach to enhancing the natural capital of the Land Yeo river and its surrounding landscape. The Wilder…
We are very pleased to announce that we have received an award from Postcode Local Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. The award will enable…
Saturday 21st November 2020 saw volunteers from the local community and further afield descend on a farm near Winford, Chew Valley, for a socially-distanced tree planting event. Tree planting marked…
The first phase of delivery in the South Brook catchment has been delivered by BART, aiming to ‘slow the flow’ of surface water during peak rainfall events. In 2018 &…
BART has implemented nature-based solutions to deliver multiple benefits in the Winford Brook catchment. As a result of a combination of desktop research and walkover investigations to ground-truth opportunities, BART…
BART is leading an exciting eDNA pilot project to explore the effects of potential river obstructions on the distribution of fish species such as the Atlantic salmon, European eel, trout,…
We are excited to share the news that we are returning to our rivers and streams during June. Thanks to the flexibility shown by project funders during this unprecedented time…
BART has been attending site visits to gain landowner permissions within the South Brook catchment for the delivery of the Natural Flood Management (NFM) works. Schemes have been identified via BART’s…
During November 2019, BART’s operations team delivered the initial phase of practical habitat improvements on the Congresbury Yeo, directly downstream of Bristol Water’s Blagdon Lake spillway. BART led a team…
Taking place between May 2019 and March 2020, The River Chew Fisheries Improvement Project is a partnership project funded by the Environment Agency and Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership. Project funding provided BART with…
BART has installed a series of ‘leaky dams’ that will help contribute towards “slowing the flow” and deliver for multiple benefits along a small tributary of the Winford Brook This…
BART have completed the final phase of our “Caring for the Cam” project, helping to improve the health of the Cam Brook near Bath for the benefit of wildlife and…
Misconnected pipes and drains are a major threat to UK rivers and seas – plumbing misconnections can contribute towards pollution so it is important to be aware of what to…
During 2019, BART will be delivering a River Chew Fisheries Improvement Strategy to develop improvement plans which could be made to the river as a fishery. The work will build…
We are excited to announce that we are leading the development of a new collaborative Chew Catchment Project designed to bring together local community groups in a mutual mission to…
BART have gratefully received funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery for improvement works along the Cam Brook at Midford. BART will be delivering a suit of work to build…
BART has recently secured funding via the Environment Agency’s Water & Environment Improvement Fund to deliver habitat enhancement projects in two locations along the Cam & Wellow Brooks. The project…
By Ian Mock, BART CEO… The above picture is a bit like Backroom BART at present. It is a time of year when Accounts and looming AGM’s cause you to…
The Environment Agency has today released the annual fisheries report detailing how rod licence income was distributed by the agency and its partners to protect and enhance angling and fisheries. The report…
Want to know more about the behind the scenes work that goes on at BART? Well keep reading to learn more about our work in the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership…
BART have been very busy recently, travelling all over the catchment doing walkover surveys and writing advisory reports for river improvement projects including the Corston, Newton, and Nunney Brooks and…
Back in October we worked with West Country Rivers Trust and Bristol Water to begin an eel escarpment study on Blagdon Lake reservoir in Somerset. It was a week of…
Here at BART we like to give other ‘watery’ organisations a helping hand, so we spent a couple of weeks with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Water Team to help out…
After working on the Wellow Brook for the whole of September we have finished this section of river restoration work! We have had a fantastic few weeks building in-stream habitat…
September is always a busy month for BART with fieldwork and river restoration, and this year was no exception. As we need to avoid the trout spawning season which begins…
So here we are in September, our busiest month of the year for in-stream habitat improvement works and it feels like just yesterday we were finishing up our works on…
BART are so pleased to hear that after we have put the fantastic Friends of the Somerset River Frome in touch with contacts at Wessex Water regarding repeat sewage pollution…
We have recently had a number of emails and messages on social media from people who are unsure of the laws surrounding catching and handling American Signal crayfish, so we…
The local Environment Agency team have recently published their fish population reports for the Bristol Avon catchment 2016, assessing the health of our rivers to inform future management. Click below…
BART have completed a very interesting and useful project funded by the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership this Spring. Sediment entering watercourses can have a detrimental effect on aquatic ecology, including…
BART have been busy over the last few months undertaking a variety of river surveys on Duchy of Cornwall estate land near to Bath, including: In-stream and riparian habitat surveys…
BART have completed the first phase of the pilot Your Fisheries Pilot project which is taking place across the country on behalf of the Rivers Trust, Angling Trust and Environment…
BART are proud to announce that we are extending the ‘Our Wonderful Wellow’ project to include the area of river by Stoney Littleton, Wiltshire. This project will involve a program…
The Somerset Frome Diffuse Pollution Pathways project will use a risk grading approach to develop sediment pathway maps for the upper Somerset Frome (South of the town of Frome). To…
Dear all, Following a significant native white-clawed crayfish kill on the By Brook, Wiltshire in August/September, it has been confirmed that the crayfish sampled were infected with Aphanomyces astaci, which is…
The Midford Brook habitat enhancement project was an initiative funded by Wessex Water to work with Avon and Tributaries Angling Association (ATAA) to restore a section of river suffering from…
BART are pleased to announce that The Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership, with whom BART are a member, have launched a comprehensive plan for improving our water environment. The new plan…
Misconnections BART have become aware of several sewage pollution incidents in our rivers over the past few months. Most recently, we were treated to a sudden flow of sewage and…
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) has formally completed its partnership project on a stretch of the Wellow Brook at Welton, Midsomer Norton. The project was carried out in partnership with the Wild…
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) are delighted to have been asked to lead this project on behalf of the Bristol Avon Catchment Group, with funding provided through the DEFRA Catchment…
The Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) has spotted an opportunity to expand volunteering and engaging people actively with their local river through working with the Riverfly Partnership. Volunteering, particularly…
The following link will take you to our latest update on the three catchment initiatives we have started this year. We will update these several times a year and add…
We have three catchment initiatives underway at present. The following links are leaflets which we will be using in the areas – feel free to send them on to anyone…
What is the Catchment Based Approach There is a lot of useful information on the internet – from the DEFRA site to the CaBA knowledgebase and of course the Bristol…