Riverbanks to become wild woodland corridors
Government announces that thousands of hectares of trees are to be planted along England’s watercourses
Aproject to turn rivers into a network of wild corridors to benefit wildlife and help mitigate climate change has been launched by forestry minister Lord Goldsmith. The Woodlands for Water project forms part of the government’s England Trees Action Plan, which aims to increase tree planting rates across the country to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament. There are 242,262km of watercourses in England and they offer
a huge opportunity to create natural corridors that will not only sequester carbon but act as buffer zones to filter out harmful chemicals that can result from agricultural activity before they reach the river.
The first phase of the project aims to create 3,150 hectares of trees in six river catchments from Devon to Cumbria by March 2025, by creating buffer zones that average 10m on each side of the river and will be given over to tree planting and natural regeneration.
Speaking at the launch, Lord Goldsmith said: “The benefits of planting trees by rivers are vast – from helping biodiversity recover by creating more natural riverbanks; to slowing the flow of surface water to reduce the risk of flooding; and improving water quality by buffering rivers from harmful agricultural pollution.”
Defra is harnessing the expertise of four leading NGOs to help deliver the project. The Riverscapes Partnership will utilise expertise from the Rivers Trust, National Trust, Woodland Trust and Beaver Trust. The aim is to work with farmers and landowners at river-catchment scale, funded by the government’s England Woodland Creation Offer (grant) but also developing innovative new funding streams to attract private finance.
“For the first time we are going to treat whole landscapes, rather than land holdings, as one,” says James Wallace, CEO of the Beaver Trust. “So rather than little piecemeal pockets of trees planted on an acre, what we are now looking at is mapping out whole river catchments, and engaging farmers systematically so that they are joined up.”