Trees for Water Action Fund 2023-24 - Somerset Rivers Authority

SRA Annual Report 2023-24: Trees for Water Action Fund

Trees for Water is an SRA-backed Fund for tree and hedge planting that helps people across Somerset to reduce local flood risks arising from surface water run-off. The project is led by Reimagining the Levels, working with the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest (FWAG SW). It’s designed to suit small sites where local knowledge and expert analysis suggest that planting will make a difference.

Planting is usually carried out by landowners and teams of enthusiastic volunteers, many now very experienced. Momentum built up over the last four years has encouraged all sorts of landowners to come forward, and 31 schemes went ahead in 2023-24. In total, they planted 3,112 trees, 3,022 shrubs, and 1,136 metres of hedgerow. To guard where need be against chomping by livestock and wildlife, 1,516 metres of fencing was also provided.

One new and interesting trend is the introduction of agro-forestry methods. For example, at Glebe Farm near Pitney, an alley-cropping system is being created, with five fenced rows of trees and shrubs, each four metres wide, spaced out across a sloping 8.9acre field with a four-year rotational ley. In Years 1 and 2 the field is a herbal ley, in Year 3 it is grazed by sheep, in Year 4 by pigs. The trees and shrubs help to absorb water and reduce local flooding, they provide shade for the sheep and pigs, they offer crops of fruits and nuts, and they provide extra habitats for wildlife. A similar but smaller scheme was planted at Woodland Farm near Sparkford, 150 metres north of the River Cam, an area which flooded badly in May 2023. The aim here is to reduce run-off while also supporting the growing of produce for a South Indian food stall business.

On land owned by the Manor House on the edge of Upton Noble, changes have been rooted in detailed analysis of old maps, aerial photography, ditches, ponds and the headwaters of the Brue. In a statement in his application to the SRA, the landowner said: “My own family took over the house and fields – all of which have always been for grazing – from my parents who moved here in 1982. Historically, as with so many fields round here, the fields were smaller once upon a time. I wanted to see whether we could recreate something of that, not least because of a belief that smaller fields would hold water better, and also because we could then re-wild particular fields in a systematic way, since we no longer require so much grazing.” The landowner re-cut a ditch, created a pond, bund and banks, and used funding from Trees for Water to plant three lengths of hedgerow, “all of which will help to hold back water”, and all of which have helped to recreate four separate small fields.