YORKSHIRE DERWENT PARTNERSHIP

"The Derwent Partnership brings together people from local communities, landowners, businesses and other organisations to decide how the River Derwent, the rivers and streams flowing into the Derwent and the land adjacent to them can be managed for the interests of wildlife, habitats and people."

Partnership approach (and a change in name)

The Partnership is seeking to take an integrated, whole catchment approach to resolving the environmental issues on the River Derwent.  We have changed the name of the Partnership from the River Derwent Catchment Partnership to the Yorkshire Derwent Partnership. This helps to distinguish us from other rivers of the same name, for example in Derbyshire and Cumbria. Building on the twin foundations of the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) and natural flood management as well as earlier work with stakeholders, the Board has agreed the following objectives for the Partnership:

·         Ecology and Water Quality – To improve ecology and water quality within the catchment and to protect water supplies.

·         Water Level Management – To reduce flood risk and increase resilience to drought through better water level management and a more naturally functioning river system.

·         Habitats and Species – To create, protect, improve and expand habitats to increase connectivity and protect vulnerable species.

·         Enjoyment and Education – To improve the quality of existing public access, understanding and a sense of connection to the river and surrounding areas, for enjoyment and wellbeing, without impacting wildlife.

·         Economy – To assist sustainable economic growth by supporting more resilient and better land management.

Invasive Species – interested in taking action?

In the last update, we asked people to get involved by helping us map the locations of three particular invasive plant species which are a particular issue in the Derwent Catchment: Giant Hogweed, Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed. This generated a lot of interest and some of you have been in touch to find out what plans there are to tackle Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) across the catchment. Many organisations who work in the catchment and some local community groups already keep their own records of INNS locations and treatment records, but we don’t have a map of this activity across the catchment. We are planning to do some work on this in 2017 so that we have much better evidence of where INNS are located and where it’s being treated. Do you keep records of this in your organisation or for your community group? If the answer is yes, then please get in touch and you could help us collate this information for the catchment as a whole – a crucial first step in planning how we tackle this across the catchment.

Rona Charles has offered to act as co-ordinator for this work within, and around, the Parish.

Are you a land manager interested in natural flood measures? If so, let us know.

The Regional Flood and Coastal Committee money will be used to support the continued running of the partnership and to deliver some catchment-scale studies and demonstration projects, particularly aimed at promoting natural flood measures amongst farmers and landowners. This involves working with natural processes to slow, store and filter water and includes measures such as woodland planting, off-line storage ponds, non-flood plain wetlands and washlands. If you are a land manager and would like to explore the potential for using some of your land for natural flood measures, please get in touch. 

Research into Natural Flood Measures (NFM)

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has made available £5m for up to four major research projects into NFM science and innovation.  A team led by Prof Dan Parsons, Professor of Sedimentology at Hull University, has put in a bid about scaling connectivity, capacity and conveyance in NFM, which – if successful -  will focus on the Yorkshire Derwent as its primary study catchment.

For further information look at:

Yorkshire Derwent Partnership 

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