Rivers Appeal: Save Radnorshire's rivers
Donate Now!Radnorshire is home to some of the UK's most magnificent rivers, the Lugg, Marteg and Ithon are all tributaries of the River Wye. Flowing from mid-Wales to the Severn estuary in England, it's one of the UK’s longest watercourses and is impacted by everything that happens in its large catchment.
Our rivers are in trouble
Healthy rivers contain more oxygen, life, and carbon - which is vital in helping to combat the climate crisis. Our rivers should be supporting fish, insects, mammals and birds, but current reports on Wales's rivers show that less than half of them meet Good Ecological Status.
Algal blooms are causing devastation to our river ecosystems. The crisis can be seen in the death of fish and insects, and the unrelenting loss of aquatic flowers. Both the River Lugg (Afon Llugwy) and the River Wye (Afon Gwy) were recently downgraded in status in England to ‘unfavourable declining’, with the Lugg (Llugwy) quoted as continuing to decline. A combination of wastewater treatment and poor agricultural practice is the main reason for the Rivers decline in Wales.
Thankfully, it's not too late to restore our rivers to their full glory for our future generations.
Donating £25
Could enable us to support volunteers with water monitoring for further analysis on our rivers
Donating £50
Could help us support the introduction of natural flood management methods, like leaky dams and pond creation
Donating £75
Could help us introduce natural flooding and drought solutions such as the introduction of Floodplain MeadowsWhat more is needed?
We must put nature into recovery. When in good health, nature has the power to tackle climate change but it needs our help to get there.
From agricultural pollution to sewage discharges - the impact on Radnorshire's rivers is clear to see. The state of nature report (2023) states starkly that nearly 1 in 5 species are threatened with extinction from Wales
What needs to happen?
The Wildlife Trusts are calling for at least 30% of our land and sea to be connected and protected for nature’s recovery by 2030. Making more space for nature to become abundant once again will give our struggling wildlife the chance to recover and also restore beautiful wild places - places that store carbon and help to tackle the climate crisis.
30% is the bare minimum that nature needs to start recovering but we are far short of this and need your help to turn things around...
We need your help to ensure that we can safeguard our rivers for years to come. If we act now, together we can restore nature for wildlife.
"Without healthy soils, clean water, and pollinators, the resources needed to produce food would rapidly disappear and Wales risks losing the vital role of agriculture in sustaining its rural economy and communities."
What is Radnorshire Wildlife Trust doing?
As an organisation, we work tirelessly to protect nature and wildlife in Radnorshire.
Currently we have 3 projects whose work is focused on rivers. You can find out more about each project below:
Wye Adapt to Climate Change?
The Wye Adapt to Climate Change? (WACC) project focuses on recovering nature and creating a climate-resilient landscape within the River Wye and its catchment. We aim to create a climate resilient landscape and promote nature recovery in the River Wye catchment. We hope to work with local communities and landowners to provide support and advise on ways to adapt and become more resilient to climate change. The project is a partnership between the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, and Wye Valley National Landscape, funded by The National Lottery Climate Action Fund.
For more information click: here
Wilder Lugg Project
The Wilder Lugg project is not concerned with ‘who is to blame’, but on working with those willing to implement solutions and creating the necessary change. The only way we can implement the level of change necessary to turn things around in our rivers is by working together – the Wilder Lugg project aims to empower the local rural community to bring about a long-term vision for the health and maintenance of the river Lugg. River users and concerned parties may have different ideas regarding how the river should be managed but almost everyone agrees they want to see a clean, healthy river, full of life and functioning as it should – and that is the ground in which we will stand on together, to guarantee the sustainability of the river Lugg for generations to come.
For more information click: here
Wye now?
The overall purpose of the post is to deliver on the trusts Campaign and Advocacy ambitions around the River Wye, rivers and water management within the upper catchments, championing a clear vision and messaging around the social, health, economic and wellbeing benefits of clean and healthy rivers with well managed water supplies.
This key project will collate all relevant information from a variety of sources which will be shared if appropriate with policy makers and politicians especially Members of the Welsh Senedd and ministers.