Our project, ‘New Approaches’, is providing support and advice to farmers, landowners and communities to create opportunities and mitigate challenges. The final year of the project sees a strong focus on improving water quality in the Luckett Stream, Lower Lynher and Tavy.

Our work with Duchy College is continuing, with the riparian buffer area either side of the Venterdon stream, being planted with trees. This will roughen the terrain, slowing the flow of water before it reaches the stream, while also acting as a filter for nutrients and stabilising soil, creating habitat diversity and improving water quality. This project, in collaboration with Westcountry Rivers Trust, will create a demonstration site for natural flood management.

A small project is underway to restore hedges, Devon banks and traditional stone walls on land that slopes steeply down to the Tavy above Denham Bridge. This will intercept surface run off and help infiltrate the soil, slowing the flow of surface water into the Tavy, as well as reducing nutrients and sediment in the watercourse.

We are also working with partners to deliver interventions on farmland above New Consols mine site to reduce the flow of surface water. Works include cross drains, scrapes, leaky dams and hedge/tree planting. This complements the work we hope to complete this summer on the mine site below subject to obtaining scheduled monument consent. This will slow surface flow across the spoil heaps and stabilise the river bank, hopefully reducing the metalloid contamination from the spoil entering the Luckett Stream.

A feasibility study into reconnecting the floodplain on the River Lynher is also going to be commissioned. Working closely with partners at the Environment Agency and Natural England, the study will identify how we may reduce flood risk, improve habitat and biodiversity and protect the priority species that may be present on the site near Pillaton.