SOMETHING is afoot in the river valleys of England. Even as farmers despair at Biblical rainfall, drowned crops and waterlogged pasture, there are projects across the country to liberate rivers and streams: allowing them to meander and spill onto floodplains, creating pools and riffles, their onward rush slowed by leaky dams.
For 150 years, rivers have been straightened, dredged and narrowed, usually to release land for cultivation or development. At Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the River Dorn was long ago forced into a channel, speeding up the rate of water flow through the catchment and depositing silt into the famous SSSI Queen Pool. Now, the river has been reconnected to natural floodplains, using leaky dams and punching cuts into the bank so water spills out and resumes its slower paleo course. Rachel Furness-Smith is Blenheim’s head of estates: ‘The water quality is much better,’ she observes, ‘and there is an abundance of improved ecology—seed re-awakening, new species, aquatic and birdlife.’
Timothy Coates is a director of the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster, which includes Blenheim. The River Glyme runs through his farm into the Evenlode and thence into the Thames at Oxford, which has flooded badly this year. ‘Primarily, we are all about water,’ he explains, ‘re-wiggling rivers, restoring floodplains to manage flow and store water in the catchment.’ Further strategies include tree planting, moving arable production away from the river and rotating crops with livestock grazing to improve soil: ‘Healthy functioning soils are like a sponge, holding 222,000 litres of water per hectare, underground cathedrals providing water in dry seasons,’ marvels Mr Coates. ‘The way our climate is changing, it is crucial to get
