Improving the River Nene The Nene Valley Nature Improvement Area. Oliver Burke and Heather Ball

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1 Improving the River Nene The Nene Valley Nature Improvement Area Oliver Burke and Heather Ball

2 Source, 146m Elevation Northampton Navigation Peterborough Distance Tidal limit, -1m

3 Making space for nature

4 Nature Improvement Area components

5 Strong existing partnership Why the Nene Valley? Coherent landscape unit around 50,000ha already Living Landscape and Futurescape Special Protection Area/Ramsar/SSSI at its heart much in unfavourable status or at risk Defra Integrated Catchment Management Pilot - Ecological status of rivers mainly moderate, most water bodies heavily modified Growth area significant development already happening, more proposed

6 The 12 NIAs

7 See inset below for detail Whittlebury This map is based upon Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Northamptonshire County Council: Licence No Published 13/09/2012.

8 NIA Objectives 1. Growth and development will support, value and benefit the natural environment resulting in a sustainable funding source and delivery of improvements to the ecological network. 2. Enhance awareness of, access to and benefits from the Nene Valley for growing local communities in a sustainable and sympathetic way, while ensuring that the designated sites at the core are brought into/remain in favourable condition. 3. Improve ecological status of the river and enhance ecosystem service provision. 4. Through effective engagement with farmers and landowners maintain, restore and create BAP habitats and implement sustainable land management practices to strengthen the ecological network. 5. Investigate the potential to market the ecosystem services provided by the Nene Valley by developing and trialling tools and models for Payments for Ecosystem Services.

9 Partnership

10 NIA Project team Natural Development Officer River Restoration Advisor Land Advisor Post-Doctoral Researcher Project Manager Project board and working groups

11 2 nd River Basin Management Plan Integrated Catchment Management Plan Organisation Local Nature Partnership NIA Project Board Local Enterprise Partnerships Revital-Ise NIA River Restoration Working Group NIA River Restoration Advisor NIA Land Advisor Environment Agency River Restoration Centre Wildlife Trust River Nene Regional Park Peterborough City Council Northamptonshire County Council Northampton Borough Council NIA Land Advice Working Group Catchment Sensitive Farming Partnership

12 River Restoration issues & drivers Water Framework Directive Navigation Flood risk management Growth Agriculture Existing projects: Catchment Plan Backchannels CSF Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Northamptonshire County Council: Licence No Published 02/02/2012.

13 Project outline Key issues: diffuse pollution, water abstraction, heavily modified river morphology (navigation and flood risk management) Outputs (by March 2015): Informing restoration plans for each reach of the River Nene and targeted reaches of its tributaries Incorporation of river restoration measures within whole farm plans (link with Land Advisor role) 10 projects delivered contributing to achieving Good Ecological Status. Outcomes (by March 2015): Measures needed to improve 44km of river for invertebrates and 55km for fish included in Nene Integrated Catchment Management Plan (which will inform 2 nd River Basin Management Plan, 2014) Measures identified, agreed and included in Nene Integrated Catchment Management Plan (which will inform 2 nd River Basin Management Plan, 2014) to see overall status improvements on 6 water bodies by Localised improvements in invertebrate assemblages at 10 remediation/enhancement sites within 2 years of work being completed.

14 Prioritisation Backchannels & backwaters (away from navigation channel) Areas with known issues e.g. low flows at Duston, identified through Urban Studies, backchannels project Areas where opportunities (funding/changing land use) may be available/exist e.g. Urban areas, Enterprise Zone also likely to be subject to new or increased pressure or impacts Catchment Sensitive Farming is addressing agricultural diffuse pollution in upper catchment (link to Land Advisor objective)

15 Urban Studies

16 Backchannels

17 Channel conditions

18 Restoration options

19 Restoration options

20 Restoration options

21 Heather Ball, Nene Valley Project Manager Oliver Burke, Director of Living Landscapes (NIA Board Chair) Simon Whitton, River Restoration Advisor

22 14 TH ANNUAL NETWORK CONFERENCE Scaling up our Aspirations for River Restoration and Management The RRC would like to thank the sponsors of the RRC Annual Conference 2013 who support discounted places