The Wye is in the news again this week with The Guardian reporting that the Government’s special plan to clean up the River Wye is believed to have been shelved and Farmers Weekly suggesting that agriculture is not the main culprit and is the victim of an “anti-farming agenda.” 

So, is any progress being made to recover our rivers? Can we end the blame game and collaborate responsibly?  

Writing in Herefordshire Wildlife Trust’s Wildside magazine last month, CEO Jamie Audsley makes it clear that to recover nature in our rivers and wider landscapes, we must acknowledge the challenges facing landowners and collaborate together for a nature-friendly future. Here we reprint some of the article’s key points.  

“The family farm at the heart of village life and working at a scale that connects to both local people and nature has become harder and harder to sustain. Listen to farmers and many are struggling financially. Moreover, many are suffering poor mental health and a crisis of identity with pressures to change.  

“Nature, likewise, faces significant difficulty, continuing to decline, as the 2023 State of Nature report tells us: abundance of 753 species down 19% since 1970; distribution of 54% of plants down since 1970; 16% (1,497) of species at risk of extinction. So, looking ahead if we are, by 2030, to halt the decline in species abundance, protect and manage 50,000 hectares of "bigger, better, joined-up” habitats for nature we’re going to have to think and act boldly and creatively.  

“So, what’s the opportunity? Can a new partnership between farming and nature catalyse the recovery of both? As Wildlife Trusts, we want to work with our farmers and champion them as agents of change for our land and nature. There’s been great progress with groups such as the Nature Friendly Farming Network and conferences such as Groundswell and the Real Oxford Farming conference bringing people together to learn and share nature-friendly, sustainable and regenerative approaches. Locally, we’re lucky that we are home to leaders of this movement with a number of farmers in Herefordshire putting nature at the heart of their business in a way that’s win-win. We hope we can play our part in furthering this work through the launch of our own developing farm advice service and landscape scale programmes that will support farmers achieve the best outcome from the government’s new Environmental Land Management Scheme, the funding approach that will pay farmers to farm for wider outcomes other than just food such as biodiversity, carbon and nutrient improvements. The scheme certainly isn’t perfect, so we’ll keep advocating for further change too!  

“Farmers, it’s clear, are likewise wanting change, as evidenced by the recent Farm Herefordshire (a partnership of farmers, farming NGOs and conservation charities) survey. Of those surveyed: 90% think it is important farming reduces its contribution to phosphate issues in our rivers; 87% are willing to make changes to reduce phosphate pollution; 72% are delivering environmental stewardship schemes on their land. So, there’s much to hope for in the years ahead.  

“One of the biggest opportunities on the horizon is Wyescapes a DEFRA funded landscape recovery scheme across 4,500 ha of riverside land, within a core project area of 7,694 hectares where 36 farmers and land managers will be supported over 20 years to: reduce management intensity; revert arable to grassland and create new wetlands, floodplain meadows and woodlands which will be wonderful for lapwings, curlew and many more of our key species. The work also aims to support farmers create a more sustainable approach to their businesses too. Be it nature recovering farming, or farming recovering nature, we hope to keep collaborating and keep working together with our farming community.”