"A Clear Future for our River"
Welcome to BART's Winter 22/23 Newsletter
Catch up with what's been happening with Team BART! As we start a new year, we've got plenty going on from river restoration to DNA sampling to citizen science and much more.
We hope that you enjoy reading about BART's recent work to protect and enhance our local rivers.
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the newest members of the BART team, Nick Wilson and Neha Pawar.
Nick joins BART as Project Manager, overseeing the delivery of a wide range of projects which improve the health of our rivers. Nick holds a BSc in Geography with a strong focus on hydrology, geomorphology and the associated impacts of land use and climate change on rivers.
Prior to joining BART, Nick worked for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust developing and delivering a multitude of river restoration, wetland creation, non-native invasive species and community engagement projects over his four years there. Nick has extensive practical survey experience, especially with water voles and is passionate about the environment and its protection.
Neha joins BART as Environmental Economist, working on a project to develop an investment model for Freshwater Biodiversity (see project updates for more details). Neha graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an MSc in Applied Economics and prior to joining BART worked within the research industry.
As Research Assistant for an independent research unit in Scotland, she carried out analysis and interpretation of complex data, wrote reports, and contributed to knowledge exchange activities. Before this, Neha worked as Research Executive for one of India’s largest investable projects databank organisations. Having worked with different organisations, Naha has acquired knowledge on conducting market and cost-benefit analysis, validating and analysing complex data sets, communicating insights, and working with various project partners from multicultural and multidisciplinary backgrounds.
A note from BART's CEO, Simon Hunter
“Our rivers are one of the most important, productive, and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. They permeate our cities, civilizations, and cultural identities. They provide one-third of the world's food production. They feed us, and keep us healthy and even transport our waste. Healthy rivers, like wetlands, are critical to global efforts to adapt to the growing effects of climate change and create a world that values nature.
Rivers must now be regarded as the dynamic arteries that they are, the lifeblood of our societies, economies, and many ecosystems, rather than another resource, to be harvested, dammed, diverted, polluted, and drained.The value of rivers to our past, present, and future cannot be balanced with how they are now being managed, or rather, abused.If the world continues to undervalue and ignore rivers, we will be unable to address our climatic and environmental challenges.
The concept of protected areas has long been the cornerstone of conservation efforts and the primary means of environmental protection. To put it another way, designate a landscape (typically a forest or a body of water) and then protect it with rules and barriers.
Concerns about this traditional conservation method have existed for some time, but alternative, inclusive, and creative approaches are now emerging. However, one issue remains unresolved: rivers, freshwater biodiversity, and those who rely on them cannot be protected using traditional methods.
Rivers are extremely dynamic systems because they have a high degree of hydrological connection, which is required for the movement of water, sediments, and nutrients. They have distinct management requirements that recognise and protect the critical roles of flow, connectivity, and related ecological processes in sustaining freshwater species, habitats, and human benefits. Freshwater environments remain underrepresented in reserve networks, making it difficult to adequately safeguard freshwater biodiversity.
It is for this reason, that BART has been working with the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership to develop the Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy, a mechanism for incorporating rivers and life beneath the water's surface into land use, public health, asset management, and economic development decisions. This strategy will serve as a road map for achieving our objectives for Bristol Avon's fish populations, as well as all other wildlife that relies on healthy freshwater river systems for survival. For more information, please see the update in our newsletter below, and keep an eye on our website and Social Media pages for the Strategy's release later this month."
Latest News
Community river dips: introducing underwater life to locals
BART have led a number of community river dips in recent months to better the connections people have with their local rivers. We were out with the Beaver Scouts in the Bide Brook in Corsham, and at the Bide Brook again with a group of young carers.
Children and adults alike are fascinated by what they find, invertebrates a plenty and the odd fish too. We received some wonderful feedback from participants:
"Fred was buzzing all the way home. What you organised tonight will make memories for all the beavers."
Thank you to the Co-op for funding these river dip events.
Launch of the Our Blue Spaces programme
The Cam and Wellow Brooks fall within an area connecting the Cotswolds and Mendip Hills Areas Of Natural Beauty (AONB), identified as the Limestone Link which provide opportunities to enhance nature, public wellbeing and the local economy through improved aesthetics, recreation and visitor attraction.
Under the Water Framework Directive, both waterbodies are currently failing and are at poor ecological status. The reasons for failure identified are the same for both waterbodies, physical modification and pollution (particularly from livestock and sewage). These issues are impacting upon biodiversity and the recreational value of these two vital “blue” spaces and the Bristol Avon in which they flow into.
Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Paulton fall within the Somer Valley Rediscovered (SVR) area, that up until recently have had difficulties in attracting economic investment in the area, as well as having limited access to open space and poor town centre environments.
The project will deliver opportunities for upskilling through environmental training with a river dipping event and RiverBlitz water quality analysis. The creation of community Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) rain planters will bring more appreciation for the local environment and make the area more aesthetically pleasing, as well as educating the community on SuDS and helping to slow the flow to nearby rivers.
Together with SVR and B&NES regeneration initiatives, ‘Our Blue Spaces’ aims to create a new appreciation and passion for the natural environment through a programme of community engagement and citizen science that provide exciting ways in which local communities can engage with their blue spaces.
The first event of the ‘Our Blue Spaces’ Programme, involved BART hosting a community river dip event in Midsomer Norton along the Wellow Brook, with the team engaging 19 members of the public and identifying a range of riverfly invertebrates. The event encouraged the community to reconnect with their local river and to learn new skills. Attendees learnt how to kick sample, identify a variety of freshwater invertebrates and now have a better understanding of river water quality of the Wellow Brook and the main threats impacting their local watercourse.They learnt how their behaviour at home, such as water usage and pouring contaminants down the drain, will impact on river health. Riverfly invertebrates, which they learnt how to sample, are useful indicators of river health because some species are sensitive to change in their environment and are not present if a local pollution event has occurred.
This programme will also include a RiverBlitz event during July and a community SuDS event, which involves installing a series of SuDS planters in Radstock, which will be planted up by the local community. BART, with the help of BANES and Radstock Town Council, have scoped out several locations for these SuDS planters, which will be installed early this year. Furthermore, BART will provide the local community with information on SuDS and the multiple benefits they provide to the local area, and hopefully inspire individuals to take action in their own homes and gardens!
Individuals or groups can get involved in the SuDS event early this year, and BART would like to encourage younger groups to take part too!
Thank you to B&NES and the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership for their continued support and funding for this project work.
Corporations lend a hand with tree maintenance
It has been a great summer and autumn with the help of those from the Planning Inspectorate, M&G Team, and Wessex Water who joined BART on several tree maintenance days tending to our newly planted trees.
Each group did a wonderful job of ensuring hundreds of saplings were given the best chance of becoming well established trees by weeding, checking each tree guard was still in place and securing any loose stakes – thank you so much to all those involved!
These tree planting days were organised as Corporate Social Responsibility volunteer days. If you are interested in organising a CSR tree maintenance day for your team, or for any other CSR opportunities, please email CSR@bristolavonriverstrust.org to find out more.
Water vole training a success
A great day was spent at Avalon Marshes with Somerset Wildlife Trust and others who signed up to BART’s water vole training day in September. The training event was aimed at improving people’s knowledge regarding what key signs of activity to look for in the wild and how to differentiate between water voles and other species. The participants can now accurately identify and report water vole field signs when out and about to BART and the Biological Records Centre.
The day consisted of a theory-based morning, teaching everyone about the ecology, distribution, habitat preference, threats, diet, and field signs of our beloved native water vole. In the afternoon, the group was taken to a location with known water vole populations and each person was asked to put their new-found knowledge to good use.
It was great to see all those taking part succeeding in their hunt for water vole activity! Thank you to everyone who was involved on the day – and let’s hope recordings of water voles continue around our treasured waterways.
Cleaning our local rivers for World Rivers Day
World Rivers Day is a celebration of the world’s waterways and helps to raise awareness of the many benefits of rivers and aims to encourage people to become more engaged with their local watercourse. In 2005, the United Nations launched the Water For Life Decade to improve engagement and appreciation for our water resources. From this, World Rivers Day was established in response to a proposal initiated by Mark Angelo, an internationally recognised river advocate. Rivers around the world face a variety of challenges, and only with our active involvement can we ensure their health is preserved in the future.
To celebrate World Rivers Day 2022, BART, alongside South Gloucestershire Council and Bristol City Council hosted two river cleans on the 24th and 25th September along the Bristol Frome. An army of volunteers pulled out so much litter, including bikes, cones, and tyres, along with lots of bags of rubbish! Unfortunately, a lot of the items that were pulled out of the river and along its banks had been purposefully dumped. Other items may have blown out of nearby bins or from roads, accidently ending up polluting the River Frome. However the litter ends up in our rivers, it is vital to remove as it pollutes our watercourses and can have detrimental effects on river wildlife. The impacts of rubbish along our waterways also degrades the quality of green and blue spaces for local communities to enjoy.
Thank you to our wonderful and dedicated volunteers for all of their hard work, the Environment Agency and Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership for funding our river cleans, and our partners, South Gloucestershire Council, Bristol City Council and Yate Town Council.
BART Rivers Services (Bristol Avon Rivers Trust consultancy arm), in partnership with Bristol City Council, have carried out a pilot study of species and communities of fish in Bristol’s Floating Harbour and the lower course of the River Avon, using environmental DNA (eDNA) – a cutting edge technique for biomonitoring rare and difficult-to-observe species. eDNA is genetic material of an organism that can be obtained from its environment; sources include dead skin cells, mucus, faeces and saliva, which have been shed by the organism into its surroundings. The presence of eDNA, even at very low concentrations, can indicate which species exist in specific habitats, including waterbodies, and the relative abundance of these species between sampling sites.
The ten sites sampled for eDNA as part of the project.
eDNA surveying and analysis has provided an effective approach for collecting data on the presence and absence of fish, particularly important in an area that has not been recently surveyed by traditional methods, if at all.
The eDNA survey has indicated the presence of the following species of note in the lower reaches of the Bristol Avon and Floating Harbour: • European eel • Atlantic herring • Atlantic salmon (Species of Principal Importance, SAC) • European plaice • Brown trout • Atlantic mackerel • Dover sole • Sea lamprey
All of which have been identified as priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, meaning they are threatened species and require conservation.
The eDNA data has provided indication of two fish species which are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, a list which evaluates the extinction risk of thousands of species: • European eel (IUCN Red List – critically endangered) • Eurasian carp (IUCN Red List – vulnerable, albeit an invasive species in England)
The eDNA dataset has provided a snapshot of species presence in the project area and helped improve our understanding of which fish species are frequenting the Bristol Avon. This data will help inform decision making that impacts on the water environment, including development in and around the harbour and recreational use of the harbour, and it will be used to help prioritise future habitat improvement and fish passage works as part of the Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy.
We are delighted with the progress of our Chew Reconnected project. As a result of employing a River Chew Community Engagement Officer, we have engaged 412 school children through a series of classroom visits and river days within the Chew catchment. The ten schools involved received a mixture of full day river classroom education, including an introduction to sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), and 2-hour river dipping sessions or two half-day sessions dependent on the schools’ requirements. BART also ran the River Chew Poetry Competition with St Johns Primary School in Keynsham winning two rain planters and a water butt planter for their school. Pensford Primary School and Bishop Sutton Primary School were runners up, who both received two rain planters.
We have also engaged a further 762 school children just outside the catchment and provided school education visits linked to the River Chew, river wildlife, impacts on rivers and sustainable urban drainage systems.
In addition to this, we have so far engaged 146 people in the retired and the over 50s under-represented audience through the following events:
Keynsham Eco Fair
Chew Magna Resilience Day
Chew Valley Plants Trees meeting
Stanton Drew WI meeting
Compton Dando Community Association coffee morning
Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club speaker evening
Compton Dando Flower Show
At the Bristol Festival of Nature, we engaged with 185 adults and children and inspired them with getting closer to nature through looking at and identifying river invertebrates at the festival, partaking in quizzes, and undertaking live demonstrations of our SuDS houses – good house / bad house with respect to SuDS.
At Pensford and Woollard, we have worked with local landowners to create wetland scrapes to reconnect the River Chew to its floodplain and provide an important habitat for wildlife. Even in the first summer of their creation, these habitats are flourishing with wildlife.
We have used project funding to deliver a Riverfly training course for ten individuals with five of the individuals being young people aged 16-24 who are looking for their first ‘break’ in the nature conservation sector. The training course will enable them and with ongoing BART support provide them with an opportunity to engage in nature and learn new skills by provided kick sample data of river invertebrates every month using an online portal.
These individuals will develop analytical and identification skills as well as a greater understanding of how land management impacts water quality. In addition to this, they will be supported by a further ten regular Riverfly monitoring volunteers, each of them providing two hours of volunteering to the project each month.
Since the start of the project, our social media following has increased with more likes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Follow us on Facebook here, on Twitter here or on Instagram here).
We have had a front-page article printed about the project in the Chew Valley Gazette, and articles in the Keynsham Voice in May 2022, and in the Mendip Times in May 2022 and June 2022. On the 26th June 2022, our River Chew Community Engagement Officer and Chief Executive Officer were hosted on BBC Radio Bristol with 112,000 listeners.
If you would like more information or if you have any questions about the project, please contact Melissa Hoskings at melissa@bristolavonriverstrust.org.
Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy
Fish play a significant role in many aspects of other species' life cycles, they are a source of food for several organisms and play a crucial function as predators in maintaining population growth and health. The maintenance of freshwater ecosystems and the terrestrial ecosystems that interact with them, systems which cycle nutrients, chemicals, and energy, depend upon fish. Therefore, a key component of nature recovery is restoring healthy fish populations, which also contribute to the financial, physical, and mental health advantages of recreational activities like fishing.
Under the Water Framework Directive, only 12% of waterbodies in the Bristol Avon catchment were classified as having good ecological status in 2021. Physical modification and elevated phosphate and nitrate levels were among the factors that contributed to failure. Many other factors that are not measured by the WFD, such as fine sediment loads from land use, pesticides, pharmaceutical chemicals, and contaminated road run-off, also have a negative impact on fish populations.
Map of the Bristol Avon Catchment
Under these conditions, it is not surprising that fish populations in the Bristol Avon catchment are under enormous pressure. Poor water quality and pollution can cause fish mortalities, and this is often worse when river flows are low. Weirs and other barriers impede fish from migrating to spawning grounds, recolonising damaged river sections, and moving away from potential danger. Our fish stocks will continue to be under strain as a result of the combined effects of a changing climate and an expanding local population.
Although the numbers are not as high as they should be, the Bristol Avon catchment supports a diverse range of fish species. Thanks to a novel survey method based on eDNA sensing, a small population of Atlantic Salmon and several other rare and protected species were discovered entering the lower sections of the river. Although this is wonderful news, it is critical that these communities are protected and supported. Fish are an essential component of the aquatic ecology and are beneficial to recreational angling's economic, physical, and mental health. Furthermore, fish populations serve as an indicator of the overall health of the aquatic ecosystem.
It is critical that steps be taken to halt the decline of fish populations and restore this invaluable natural resource.
Brown trout. Image credit: Hunter Brumels
The Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy has been produced through the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership (BACP), with content commissioned from the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART). It serves as a tool for embedding the value of rivers in decision-making across spatial planning, public health and economic development.
This Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy guides collective action to deliver our vision and objectives for fish populations in the Bristol Avon catchment.
Vision
The fish populations in the Bristol Avon catchment are thriving, with a diverse range of species living and breeding in healthy rivers and tributaries. Migratory fish, including brown trout, Atlantic salmon and European eel, as well as coarse fish species are present throughout the catchment. The tidal reaches act as an important habitat for estuarine and marine fish species linked to the internationally important fish assemblage of the Severn Estuary Special Area of Conservation.
Keep an eye on our website and social media channels for the release of the Strategy during March.
The Trust will collaborate with the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership to attract investment to implement this Strategy and benefit life beneath the water's surface.
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 through the Three Brooks Nature Reserve in north Bristol.
This urban stream has been heavily modified to primarily function as a conduit for water to get from A to B as quickly as possible. Over time, the stream has become disconnected, hidden away, and stripped of valuable habitat for fish and aquatic life.
The over-wide and artificially straight jacketed channel was shallow and devoid of cross-sectional habitat diversity, providing very little refuge for coarse and minor fish species or invertebrates. Conditions were characteristic of slow depositing flows; the bed was uniformly silty which smothered riverbed gravels. In places, the brook was also over-shaded, preventing light reaching the watercourse, impacting the colonisation of macrophytes (aquatic plants) thus limiting habitat diversity and the niches that fish rely upon to thrive.
Pre-restoration conditions: straight, uniform and silty channel.
The primary objectives of the restoration work were to improve conditions for macrophyte and macroinvertebrate (e.g. aquatic insect) communities in this watercourse, acknowledged to be failing under current Water Framework Directive (WFD) assessments, as well as creating habitat for both coarse and minor fish species.
Between October 2021 and November 2022, 30 brushwood berms were added to a 1km reach of the Stoke Brook, a tributary of the Bristol Frome. Brushwood berms are woody structures built in the river to encourage natural processes and increase flow and habitat diversity for river wildlife.
Each structure required large quantities of brushwood (small branches) to be dragged, cut, floated and carefully positioned into the river. Once positioned, the brushwood was secured in place using ‘cross braces’ (tree limbs) and wired to chestnut stakes that were hand driven into the riverbed. The process is labour intensive, physically demanding not to mention cold and soggy during early winter!
Restoration underway: brushwood berms being installed by BART and volunteers.
To build the berms, a team of volunteers assisted BART, many from the local Three Brooks Conservation group and several corporate CSR groups. The team harvested the brushwood for the berms from the banks of the river and surrounding woodland. Areas of dense canopy were targeted to reduce over-shading and encourage growth of aquatic plants, which themselves provide valuable river habitat. Small branches were collected and tightly packed behind the main deflector arm. The woody deflectors were strategically positioned in the channel and secured to the riverbed and banks to create a series of pinch points to diversify flow conditions throughout the stretch of river.
Securing the brushwood berms firmly into the riverbed.
When the flow in the brook becomes elevated, the berms are designed to over-top and could be underwater for months at a time. As the water flows quickly over and through them, they will capture fine sediment, eventually filling up and forming a low-level extension of the riverbank. As the brushwood berms capture silt and become self-sustaining, they will create a more diverse river cross-section, creating deeper pools where flow is quickest and scouring silt from the riverbed which providing valuable habitat for fish. The brushwood berms act as natural river meanders that would have once existed in this river network.
The material scoured from the newly formed pools will deposit downstream in slower flowing water, with material forming riffles and runs. The faster flowing sections generated by the restoration will provide suitable flow conditions for species such as water crowfoot and starwort and the silty structure will encourage species such as reeds to colonise along with the species present in the seed bank transported from upstream. The bankside tree roots exposed by scour will provide fantastic refuge for fry as will the backwater habitat created downstream of the structures.
Post restoration: 12 months on, diversity of flow conditions, clean riverbed gravels, exposed tree roots along bank and diversity of cross-sectional habitat created at one of the sites.
It will take a few more years before the restoration sites settle into their new equilibrium, and the dry winter resulted in less morphological change than we’d have seen in a wet year. Nevertheless, the changes we’re seeing are encouraging and with more extreme weather patterns impacting our watercourses, the restoration will provide greater resilience to the pressures impacting our local rivers and the life that depend on them.
A big thank you to South Gloucestershire Council for granting permission to BART to carry out the works throughout the council’s land. Thank you to the Environment Agency, Postcode Local Trust and Bristol Frome Reconnected for funding the project to date. We now look forward to continuing working with partners to build a wider programme of catchment restoration that includes further restoration, wetland creation, and Natural Flood Management measures during 2023-2027 via the Resilient Frome partnership programme, one of 25 projects supported by Defra’s Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Fund.
The water vole is one of Britain’s fastest declining wild mammals – disappearing from 95% of their former sites around the United Kingdom. Specifically, within the Bristol Avon and Chew catchment, there are many issues associated with the deterioration of this species including: poor water quality, removal of bank-side vegetation, increased pressures from farming and grazing practices, habitat loss and degradation and predation by American mink.
The BART Chew Water Vole project aimed assess water vole populations within the Chew catchment. Water vole surveys were undertaken upon completing desktop research to understand the distribution of water vole presence, water vole habitat and possible factors impacting water vole throughout the Chew Catchment. BART aim to use the findings from this project to design and implement schemes to improve and support water vole populations in the Chew catchment. Unfortunately, of the six rivers that were surveyed as part of the project, water vole signs were not recorded.
The non-native American mink is an invasive species who have a devastating impact on water voles. The water vole’s usual defence of diving underwater or running into their burrow is not effective against mink. Mink are better swimmers and a female mink can fit into their burrows.
BART have been busy monitoring mink activity within the Chew catchment over the summer, autumn and will continue throughout winter. Monitoring rafts have been deployed across parts of the River Chew catchment enabling us to record footprints and gather information on the abundance and whereabouts of this species. Through the monitoring of mink, we are hopeful to understand how far their territory stretches, and the areas of highest activity working up a strategy to control the species.
Thanks to Bristol Water for funding the Chew Water Vole project. We are working in partnership with Somerset Wildlife Trust to monitor mink with support and funding provided by the National Grid.
Mink can be identified by their dark brown-black fur, narrow snout, and a small, white chin and white throat. If you live in the Chew area and have information of local mink or water vole populations please email molly@bristolavonriverstrust.org.
Davis Pond
BART have been working with Bradley Stoke Town Council to enhance the wildlife pond in Jubilee Green, Bradley Stoke. Davis Pond is susceptible to drying out for extended periods of the year which means that pond plant species and associated pond wildlife such as amphibians and invertebrates are sparse.
BART have put together a Pond Management Plan, to suggest recommendations to improve the pond design and management for wildlife and local people to enjoy. Recommendations included coppicing to reduce overshading, planting native wetland plants, redesigning the shape of the pond to enhance water holding capacity and adding shelves to create marginal habitat.
We look forward to seeing the recommendations being developed by wider partners over the next few months. Thank you to Bradley Stoke Town Council for funding us for this project.
Freshwater Biodiversity Investment Model
BART are working alongside partners, Federated Hermes Limited (a global leader in active, responsible investment), The Duchy of Cornwall, and The Rivers Trust, to develop an innovative Freshwater Biodiversity Investment Model. The model will allow buyers to invest in the enhancement of freshwater biodiversity much in the same way as carbon credits can provide investment for forest ecosystems.
The project fills a significant gap in the natural capital investment market through monetising river restoration techniques and the subsequent benefits this provides to enhancing and restoring freshwater biodiversity. The project will fill critical gaps both within the investment market by creating a new space for freshwater biodiversity investments to take place, while driving forwards the first freshwater biodiversity code with a mechanism to develop them at scale throughout the UK and the latter potentially globally.
As part of the project, BART have pilot sites in the River Chew where work is being done to enhance the river habitats in a quantifiable way. We are engaging with private landowners and tenant farmers to develop fair and future-proof methods that will provide income to the farm business in return for river restoration measures being installed. Alongside work in the field, BART’s Environmental Economist is busy analysing multiple data sets to identify the best parameters to use within the model.
BART are excited about the potential impact of the model on river restoration nationwide and look forward to providing updates as the project develops beyond its early stages.
Vision
To create a flourishing river valley rich in wildlife, where the river has space to re-connect with the landscape and people are engaged and enthused to protect it. A landscape where sustainable food production and business can thrive, and the benefits our ecosystems provide are realised and rewarded. .
Abberd Brook river restoration
In October the BART team completed a small river restoration project along the Abberd Brook in Calne, adjacent to the riverside footpath popular with dog walkers, joggers and local residents. The brook has been artificially straightened and in places over-widened, causing slow flows which has resulted in the riverbed becoming a silty and unsuitable for many invertebrates and aquatic life.
BART and volunteers from the Friends of the Marden Valley installed four brushwood berms constructed from wooden logs and brushwood to help improve flow and water quality conditions. These brushwood berms will help to create a more diverse river cross section and material that is scoured will be naturally deposited downstream to create shallow riffles. This material will form valuable habitat for marginal plants to colonise as well as providing habitat for fish and invertebrates. The enhanced flow diversity will also improve the river’s ability to deal with low-flow conditions.
Thank you to Wiltshire County Council and The Halpin Trust for funding this project, and to Friends of the Marden Valley for their valuable support on this project.
Castlefields river restoration following weir removal
Following the small weir removal at Castlefields Park last winter, our delivery team has been working in partnership with Friends of the Marden Valley and Calne Town Council, with funding from the Halpin Trust, to install two flow deflectors in the River Marden back in September.
BART, alongside a team of enthusiastic volunteers, produced two brushwood berms that were tightly bound and secured to the riverbed to create ‘pinch points’ in the channel. These where strategically placed to narrow the channel and input small meanders into the river where the channel was previously over wide because of the weir. The brushwood berms will help to restore natural processes to the river system, creating areas of scour and deposition, allowing the river to ‘look after’ itself.
Thank you to Calne Town Council and The Halpin Trust for funding this project, and to Friends of the Marden Valley for their valuable support on this project.
BART Detectives
In an effort to increase and improve water quality monitoring, at a time when Environment Agency monitoring is being reduced, BART are leading a citizen science ‘BART River Detectives’ project. The project involves volunteers from local communities conducting long term water quality monitoring of key sections of the River Chew, Bristol Frome and the Cam, Wellow and Midford Brooks surrounding Warleigh Weir.
Volunteers have been equipped with easy to use testing kits, which analyse turbidity, temperature, total dissolved solids and phosphate. BART have also developed our own survey form for volunteers to fill out, which will help deliver monitoring that is better suited to the rivers covered and the impacts acting upon them.
BART have hosted several training workshops to teach volunteers how to use the water testing equipment and provide them with their own kits for the monthly samples they will take over the next year. Each volunteer has been allocated a site where they will take these measurements, and the data collected will be uploaded to our online platform.
The data collected will be displayed on an interactive map, alongside the data BART have collected through our annual RiverBlitz project, which will provide a more extensive data set and understanding of river health within the catchment. The map can be found here.
Thank you to Bristol Water, BANES, Wessex Water and the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership for their support and funding on this project.
Riverfly monitoring update
Thank you very much to those of you who have supported us with riverfly monitoring throughout 2022. The Riverfly Monitoring Initiative uses citizen science to get people out and about on their local river, enjoying the natural environment and sampling for riverflies. The scheme is supported by the Riverfly Partnership and more info can be found on their website.
Our hugely valued riverfly monitors have been sampling throughout 2022 collecting riverfly data, reporting potential pollution incidents and helping to protect our rivers and streams into the future.
Over the Summer of 2022 we held four Anglers Riverfly Monitoring Initiative training courses to teach new volunteers the skills to become riverfly monitors. These training sessions resulted in monitoring on new watercourses including the Cam brook, Gauze brook, Compton Dando stream and the St Catherine’s brook. We have also extended the network of sites we had already established on the Trym, Wellow brook and the River Marden and been able to provide new monitors to support existing monitors on the Bristol Frome, Somerset Frome and River Chew.
The drought conditions we have all witnessed this Summer and Autumn have put great pressure on our rivers and the macro-invertebrates appear to be suffering. As a result of the low flows a number of our riverfly monitors throughout the catchment flagged a reduction in riverflies in the summer and autumn, sometimes causing the scores to drop below the expected “trigger level” for that river. Rivers with trigger level alerts, likely to be a result of the drought include the Chew, Little Avon, Gauze brook and the Sheppey. Some of course have been too dry to even monitor! We are using this data to help prioritise our own work in the catchment as well as feeding this information back to the Environment Agency to ensure the valuable data our monitors are collecting informs their future work.
We are looking to raise funding to carry out more ARMI riverfly training courses in 2023. If anyone has any suggested funding ideas or is interested in finding out more about becoming a riverfly monitor then please contact jess@bristolavonriverstrust.org
Co-op Rivers for Wellbeing
Thanks to funding from Co-op Local Community Fund we have been able to run a series of fantastic river based wellbeing activities within the Catchment throughout 2022. Activities have included Yellow Fish events and River Dips in Yate, Winterbourne, Cosrham and Norton St Phillip. Yellow Fish events involve spraying yellow fish symbols adjacent to road drains and posting leaflets through doors to teach local communities and businesses that Only Rain should go Down the Drain! River Dip events encourage participants to get their wellies on and explore the invertebrates that live below our waterline. We also ran a riverfly training course in Corsham – teaching members of the local community the skills they need to become Volunteer Riverfly Monitors and providing them with the kit and support to start monitoring.
We are lucky enough to have been chosen as the Co-op Local Cause for three stores this year: Winterbourne, Brislington and Long Ashton. If you live in these local communities please help us to raise funds by choosing BART as your local cause via our cause page below:
SmartRivers is a scheme spearheaded by WildFish. It is a water quality monitoring project that trains volunteers to take invertebrate samples which can be analysed to understand more about the pollutants that are stressing our rivers.
BART signed up to the SmartRivers Initiative in 2019 and with funding from Bristol Water, Jessy Grant, BART’s Aquatic Ecologist, undertook our first invertebrate sampling and species level analysis in Autumn 2019 at five sites on the River Chew. Since then we have continued to collect data on the River Chew sites and in 2021 and 2022 extended our SmartRivers network onto the Congresbury Yeo and the Upper and Little Avon catchments thanks to funding from Bristol Water, D’oyly Carte Charitable Trust and The Halpin Trust.
SmartRivers uses invertebrate data to assess which of the following pressures are impacting each site: 1) pesticides; 2) slow flowing water; 3) organic pollution (such as sewage); 4) phosphorus pollution (mainly from sewage and farm run-off); and 5) siltation (too much sediment). It is no surprise to find that our results have showed that our rivers are being impacted by multiple stresses and sources. Here are brief summaries of some of our findings for each catchment.
Chew SmartRivers Findings
The results from the most recent analysis on the Chew data revealed that excess sediment was the pressure of most consistent concern at all but one of the sites. Excessive sediment caused by human factors is detrimental to the water quality and ecology of a watercourse, including fish and invertebrates. Impacts on invertebrates include the clogging of gills and the destruction of suitable habitats.
There were no obvious trends over the years, however most scores in all samples were much higher in the Spring samples compared to the Autumn samples, suggesting greater pressures on the invertebrate communities in Autumn. It should be noted that the catchment suffered from drought conditions in Summer 2022 and the impact of the low flows could have had a detrimental effect on the invertebrate assemblages recorded in the Autumn 2022 samples. Some sites showed a concerning drop in scores between Spring 2022 and Autumn 2022, potentially a result of these Summer drought conditions.
Map of the River Chew SmartRivers sites
Congresbury Yeo SmartRivers Findings The SmartRivers Congresbury Yeo work found that pesticides and siltation were having the greatest impact on the invertebrate communities sampled. Phosphorus was of concern at some of the sites. Organics were of least concern at all of the sites. Flow was only seen to have a concerning impacting on one site, the other sites were only slightly impacted.
The taxa recorded in the samples included the less commonly found red data book species: Least Water Snipe-Fly Atrichops crassipes. These Water Snipe Fly were found at the two most downstream sites: Site 1 (Iwood Manor) and Site 2 (US Beam Bridge).
Map of Congresbury SmartRivers sites
Little Avon SmartRivers Findings
The SmartRivers Little Avon results were very variable between sites and even samples. Pesticides were found to be of concern at all sites apart from Site 5 – Little Avon at Matford Bridge. The pesticide stress exhibited by the invertebrates was generally worse in the Autumn compared to the Spring.
Map of Little Avon SmartRivers sites
Phosphorus pollution was found to be of concern at four of the five sites – although it is extremely likely that they are also of concern at Site 2 – Doverte Brook at Mill End. Particularly low diversity can affect the calculation of some SmartRivers metrics. Based on other data, it is likely phosphorus is also having a considerable impact on the invertebrates at Site 2.
Siltation is a pressure of concern at Sites 3, Site 4, and Site 5, although like phosphorus it is extremely likely that it is also of concern at Site 2 but not highlighted due to the sensitivity of the sediment metric to low diversity. Flow was seen to be slightly impacting all sites apart from Site 3 where it was of moderate impact. Data indicated that organic pollution is problematic at Site 2 and Site 3.
The invertebrate assemblages recorded at Site 2 on the Doverte brook were poor. Site 2 is the most heavily impacted of all the Little Avon sites and the priority area for action. In 2021, BART carried out walkover surveys on the Little Avon tributaries – including the Doverte Brook. These surveys highlighted severe water quality and sediment issues on the Doverte Brook upstream of the invertebrate sampling location. The SmartRivers pressure ratings found extremely high chemical stress at this site and the organic pollution ratings suggested considerable water quality issues. The sediment and phosphorus metrics could not be used as there were so few taxa present. It is extremely likely that the polluting inputs entering the Doverte brook upstream of the invertebrate site, as reported by BART to the Environment Agency, are responsible for the very poor invertebrate assemblages recorded at the site.
Upper Avon SmartRivers Findings
Siltation is the pressure of greatest concern on the Upper Avon with all sites moderately to heavily impacted. Impacts were greater in Autumn at Site 3, Site 4 and Site 5.
Map of the Upper Avon SmartRivers sites.
Pesticides were not of concern at any sites in Spring but were of concern in Autumn at Site 1, Site 2 and Site 4. Phosphorus was found to be of concern in Spring at Site 3 and both seasons at Site 4. However, it is extremely likely that they are of concern in both seasons at Site 3, Site 4 and Site 5.
Flow was seen to be slightly impacting all sites although the data from Autumn indicate that it is likely that the summer drought conditions have exacerbated any pressures on the watercourses and contributed to a reduced diversity of invertebrates in Autumn.
The data from the SmartRivers programme is continually reviewed and used to help inform and focus our environmental work within each of these hugely valuable river catchments.
For further information or for a copy of the report with full details of our SmartRivers work please contact jess@bristolavonriverstrust.org
RiverBlitz 2022
An amazing effort by 87 Citizen Scientists resulted in the 2022 Bristol Avon RiverBlitz being a huge success!
From the 11th to 18th July, volunteers took part in important water quality testing in their local streams and rivers throughout the Bristol Avon catchment. People of all ages were provided with our easy-to-use testing kits to measure concentrations of phosphates and nitrates, with a total of 143 samples collected and recorded across the catchment. This data is crucial and will provide us with a snapshot in time of nutrient levels throughout the catchment.
Many of this year’s participants attended local events that took place on the Cam and Wellow Brook, the Congresbury Yeo, the River Biss and the River Chew. At these events volunteers were supplied RiverBlitz testing kits and members of BART provided demonstrations before heading out to take their own samples. BART were thrilled to have such a fantastic turn out of keen and committed Citizen Scientists across multiple watercourses during these events.
Results Analysis of all data collected in 2022, including the RiverBlitz data collected during the Land Yeo WaterBlitz during the Spring, shows that 70% of samples recorded a high level of nitrate (>2mg/L), with low levels of nitrate (<0.5mg/L) recorded in only 6% of samples. Levels greater than 0.5mg/L suggests water quality is likely to impact aquatic wildlife, particularly those sensitive to changes in water quality. Currently in England, there are no official standards for nitrate levels in freshwater bodies, but high levels of nitrate can cause significant impacts to aquatic ecosystems and are common in watercourses consisting of both urban and agricultural land use.
When compiling all of the RiverBlitz data collected this year, 70% of the samples recorded high phosphate levels (>0.1mg/L), with low levels of phosphate (<0.05mg/L) recorded in only 13% of samples.
The data collected during all of the Bristol Avon RiverBlitz events since 2016 can be found on our RiverBlitz explorer platform which provides tools for users to compare and explore the datasets. This is a great tool for checking out the data for your local watercourse and hope that the results collected by citizen scientists inspire you to take part in our RiverBlitz 2023 event!
What do the results mean? Nutrients, particularly phosphates and nitrates, are amongst the most common pollutants of freshwater across the world. As a result of their wide-ranging effects, levels of phosphate and nitrate are widely used as indicators of water quality. High nutrient concentrations in rivers and streams can be detrimental, causing excessive growth of plants and harmful algal blooms. Algal blooms block sunlight from reaching other plants in the water. They also use up oxygen in the water at night which can suffocate fish and other creatures. Oxygen is also used up when the bloom decays. As well as impacting wildlife, nutrient pollution can have economic impacts due to increasing water treatment costs, commercial and recreational fishing losses, and reduced tourism income.
The most common causes of high nutrient concentrations include:
Pesticides and fertilisers are sources of nutrients that can contribute to pollution when they are washed into our rivers from agricultural land, sports grounds, market gardens and even our own back gardens.
Agricultural pollution can be caused when livestock have free access to access watercourses or runoff from farm infrastructure or muck heaps flows directly into a watercourse.
Water industry continuous discharges from water recycling centres. The single activity with the most widespread impact on rivers is discharges of treated sewage effluent.
Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s) that are used to provide relief to the sewer system during heavy periods of rain, preventing our homes from flooding. However, when CSO’s kick in, rainwater mixed with raw sewage containing high concentrations of nitrates and phosphates is discharged into our rivers.
Despite recent improvements in some of our urban rivers, towns and roads continue to have a negative impact on our rivers.
How reliable is the RiverBlitz as an indicator of river health? The data collected during the Bristol Avon RiverBlitz captures water quality measurements at a particular moment in time. Your data is used by BART to build a picture of what is happening at your local river where you take your measurement. Your results help to build a picture of what is affecting the ecosystem and identifies key areas which may be in need of restoration or are clean and need protecting.
Measurements can be influenced by a range of factors including changes in weather, temperature, inputs from connecting watercourses, the presence of livestock or any number of other changeable factors can cause a different measurement to be found at a different time. Therefore, the data is helpful in providing an indicator for water quality which we share with our partners to guide further investigations for more accurate and consistent measurements.
River health is measured using a combination of techniques and looks at a multitude of factors over a period of time. This is combined to give a health status of each river through the EU’s Water Framework Directive.
Thank you! Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers who once again turned up in force to do their bit for our local rivers.
We’d like to say a big thank you to this year’s project funding partners: Defra’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund, Bath and North East Somerset, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Avon Wildlife Trust, Medlock Charitable Trust, Waitrose, and The Big Give.
Coming Up
Become a BART Beacon BART are seeking every day river heroes to help us protect and restore the rivers of the Bristol Avon. We aim to expand our network of BART Beacons so we can gain a more comprehensive picture of what's going on around the catchment.
We know how much people love spending time near, in or on the water and we would like committed volunteers to use this time to help BART look after our rivers and streams. BART Beacons are our eyes and ears on the ground, responding to issues or letting us know if they spot opportunities for improvement on their local river. It is a non-committal way to volunteer and anyone can do it!
What is a BART Beacon? BART Beacons are our eyes and ears on the ground, responding to issues or letting us know if they spot opportunities for improvement on their local river. Our Beacons are individuals or groups who can be a local contact for the public seeking guidance on how to best respond to a problem with their local river.
Over the years our Beacons have helped us build cases for river restoration, brought communities together to look after their natural spaces and responded quickly to major issues such as pollutions or habitat clearance.
BART can guide Beacons on the best action to take if they spot an issue or are contacted by a concerned member of the public. This could involve gathering photos to share with BART or reporting an incident to the Environment Agency or local authority. By becoming a Beacon you will help BART to keep an eye on the whole catchment and save our charity time and resource by responding to queries we would otherwise need to respond to.
How to become a BART Beacon Sign up to become a BART Beacon by contacting info@bristolavonriverstrust.org with your name and email address and the river or stream you would like to become a Beacon for. BART will provide you with guidance on the role and how best to carry it out.
Yellow Fish Events
Did you know that surface road drains lead directly into your local watercourse? Anything other than rain that goes down the drain such as litter, car oils, detergents and wastewater can harm river health and its wildlife. Our fish, invertebrates and other river life need your help! BART are looking for volunteers in Bristol to help raise awareness that only rain should go down the drain.
BART are running a Yellow Fish campaign to raise awareness of the issues facing the Bristol Frome river. The events involve putting up posters to spread the message and painting yellow fish next to surface road drains. We are hosting two events:
Thurs 16th February 10am - 1pm: St Werburghs. Sign up here
Thurs 2nd March 10am - 1pm: Eastville. Sign up here
BART River Services
Do you aspire to protect your river, create a wetland, or interested in opportunities to enhance your land for the benefit of wildlife? Perhaps BART River Services can help?
Do you need support with farm advice, Natural Flood Management, Nature Based Solutions, river restoration, wetland creation, environmental monitoring or ecological surveys? Perhaps BART River Services Ltd can help? Our specialist team offers an array of skills to deliver projects to your requirements. We work with a diverse range of customers to meet their objectives including local authorities, farmers, land agents and estate managers as well as environmental consultants, engineers and developers.
BART River Services is wholly owned by Bristol Avon Rivers Trust and is designed solely to help provide income to the Trust to enable it to deliver its objectives. It is managed so that all profits are passed to the Trust.
Please give us a call if you think we might be able to help you – we are always happy to have an informal discuss by phone or email about the services we can provide.
