The Water Environment Grant

The Water Environment Grant (WEG) was part of the Rural Development Programme for England, funded by the European Union. It aimed to help tackle issues in a number of waterbodies that are failing to meet European water quality standards (the Water Framework Directive). A key element of this work was the 'Enhancing Public Goods in the Forest of Feckenham' project, focussed on the Bow Brook and Piddle Brook catchments and sought to mitigate phosphate pollution while improving water resources, biodiversity, soil health and river corridor management.

The project delivered a programme of advice and physical works to help the environment, wildlife, water quality, farmers pockets and our water bills.  We looked at what are the sources of phosphorous (what are farmers putting onto the land), the pathways it can move through (mainly soil management and field drains) and receptors (in this case, the Bow Brook).

In order to reduce phosphate pollution in the targeted areas by 15%, we helped farmers with nutrient budgeting (helping to balance what's put onto the land against what runs off it) , waterside corridor management, wetland creation and soil sampling. We also monitored the work to determine how successfully we could turn these proposed reductions into practice and how this will affect future land management schemes in a changing world.

This project was developed largely from the work of the Wild Pollinator Facilitation Fund Project and many of the priorities identified there helped lead to a successful bid for funding as part of a larger collaboration between landowners, 17 of whom became partners in our WEG project.