Guest Blog. National Trust and Yorkshire Water: delivering natural flood management on a landscape scale.
By Victoria Holland and Jess Yorke, National Trust.
The wild, rugged uplands of the South Pennines are a unique and breath-taking landscape, shaped by nature, early man, farming and industry. Water plays a key part in this region; the peat bogs, rivers, streams and reservoirs continue to influence how we look after the land. And, like everywhere else, the impact of climate change and the biodiversity crisis are beginning to take its toll. The Landscapes for Water Programme aims to restore and improve this landscape for nature, climate and people.
Protecting our peatlands
Much of the moorland surrounding us in Calderdale and Kirklees should be in ‘active blanket bog condition’ – a type of landscape that holds water and releases it slowly to the valleys below. A mosaic of plants like sphagnum moss, cotton grass and bilberry should all be helping to slow the flow of water, and gradually forming peat. Peat soils in good condition can also hold more water compared to other soil types- in fact, healthy peat is 85-90% water.
Unfortunately, 80% of the UK’s peat soils are in a damaged or deteriorating condition. The blanket bog of the South Pennines is one of the most degraded peatland habitats in the world, due to 200 years of atmospheric pollution from surrounding industrial towns and cities, combined with moorland fires and overgrazing. This has a major impact on carbon release, biodiversity, soil erosion and flood risk. The Landscapes for Water programme focuses on restoring these uplands, using a range of natural flood management techniques, as well as complimentary tree planting in clough valleys. In total, the restoration work will cover approximately 5500 hectares, from Marsden Moor in the south to Heptonstall Moor in the north, working across National Trust and Yorkshire Water land.
Scaling up
On its own, one leaky dam can only do so much. But multiply those leaky dams across a valley, a catchment, or even a whole landscape, and combine it with other natural flood management techniques, and you can see a big impact. In total, the Landscapes for Water Programme will install 3,500 leaky dams. Many of these will be in small gullies which only flow during periods of heavy rainfall. Installing these gully blocks allows the water to pool behind the dams, meaning the water can slowly soak into the surrounding soils, rather than rushing down the valley into the streams and rivers below. This not only reduces flood risk, but also helps re-wet and restore the landscape.
Creating new woodland
A central part of the programme is native woodland creation; both the National Trust and Yorkshire Water have ambitious plans to plant more trees to benefit nature, reduce flood risk and capture carbon. Establishing new woodland requires careful planning and mapping to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right place. As well as extensive surveys, the programme team have consulted with experts including RSPB, Natural England and the Forestry Commission.
The woodland will be created in small valleys, known locally as cloughs, where trees would naturally grow, but have been removed due to past moorland management. In total, 350 hectares of native trees will be planted including rowan, oak and birch which naturally thrive in harsh upland climates. The trees’ roots will help to hold soil in place and take moisture out of the soil, whilst the tree’s leaves will intercept water, slowing the rate at which it reaches the ground and allowing some to be evaporated, further reducing flood risk.
Multiple benefits: from floods to fires
The Landscapes for Water programme is not just about reducing flood risk though. Rewetting the uplands also helps to improve their resilience to fires, reduces soil erosion and restores habitats for wildlife. This has knock-on benefits for drinking water catchments, leading to less chemical treatment at Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs. Both tree planting and peatland restoration help to capture carbon, incredibly important in our current climate. Like so many projects that have an element of natural flood management, there are multiple benefits to the work. From floods to fires, there are so many ways the programme can help to protect and restore the landscape, allowing it to be enjoyed by generations to come. This is a really exciting time in the project, as we move into the first phase of delivery in the coming months. We cannot wait to see these multiple benefits develop over the years to come and help inform our future projects.
