A three-year project on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset has successfully reconnected a section of a Somerset river to its floodplain to create a new and instantly different waterscape using the innovative ‘Stage 0’ river restoration technique, first pioneered in Oregon, USA. It is the first time the full approach of a river reset has been attempted on a main river at this scale in the UK.

The fifth annual Somerset Community Resilience Day is being held at Wincanton Racecourse on Thursday 5 October, 10am to 4pm. Entrance is FREE, lunch is FREE, and there is a choice of stimulating talks, workshops, demonstrations and activities. PLUS: make a nomination for the Somerset Community Resilience Award 2023.

The Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) Annual Report 2022-23 covers dozens of activities funded by the SRA between the start of April 2022 and the end of March 2023. During that time, the SRA spent £5.89 million on extra flood protection and resilience works across Somerset.

Somerset Rivers Authority is recruiting a Community Engagement Officer. The job's main purpose is to help people across Somerset be better prepared for flooding. The deadline for applications was 22 June 2023. However, the SRA is also going to be advertising for a Community Engagement Support Officer. This item is therefore being kept for people to read, because it might provide some useful background information for anybody thinking of applying for the Support Officer job.

A new briefing from Environment Agency Wessex, a partner in Somerset Rivers Authority, about upcoming events and activities on the Somerset Levels and Moors. The main subjects public drop-in events in Moorland on 20 March and Burrowbridge on 27 March, the demobilisation of temporary pumps at five places this March, and a public drop-in about Currymoor reservoir on 22 March.

A new briefing from the Environment Agency about the latest situation on the Somerset Levels and Moors, following a period of very wet weather - the eighth wettest since 1891 - then several weeks of unusually dry weather. This dry weather has allowed catchments to dry out and river levels to recede. The forecast remains dry, and there is now a great deal of capacity in the Somerset Levels and Moors water storage system. This means that many smaller temporary pumps have been returned to storage, and locations, and larger temporary pumps can now be removed as planned.