 This newsletter aims to update and inform people about the Herefordshire Natural Flood Management (NFM) project which is being delivered by Herefordshire Council within seven priority sub-catchments.
With the weather warming up and more works on the way, take a look at what has been delivered so far through the Herefordshire Natural Flood Management (NFM) Project.
Figure 1: Natural Flood Management Grant Scheme summary – April 2025
Leaky dams are a low-cost, yet effective method of Natural Flood Management (NFM). Composed of natural materials such as trees and logs, leaky dams aim to mimic a river's natural flow regime.
These structures are commonly placed in upstream ditches and watercourses or areas of stream within a wet woodland. They are installed above the watercourse’s regular flow height to allow water to flow underneath the dam. Then, when there is heavy rain and water levels rise, the dam effectively slows the flow of water, holding water behind the dam and encouraging water to spill out of the channel and pool in the woodland or grassland around the dam.
Figure 2: Leaky dam in the Dulas brook catchment - NFM Pilot Project
Over time, these structures cause sediment and debris to accumulate, slowing the transport of sediment downstream. Creating a more stable sediment regime is beneficial for both flood risk reduction and the ecological health of a river. Many invertebrates and small fish thrive around woody dams due to the shelter they provide. Excessive sediment transport downstream can choke invertebrates living in the riverbed (1) and cause blockages to drains downstream, increasing surface water flood risk to communities.
Rivers in good health will have a variety of riparian (bankside) vegetation, moderate sediment transport, and plenty of fish and invertebrates. Riparian zones are vital to a river’s health. Similar to leaky dams, riparian zones such as grasses, scrub, and trees filter sediment and pollution runoff from fields as well as slowing the flow. Conifers in wet woodlands are especially effective at intercepting water, capturing around 250-450mm of water annually (2).
Why should we install Leaky Dams? An overview of the river health in the UK:
Human intervention in our rivers has led to a loss of diversity in their channels. Rivers that once meandered through flood plains, became straightened to maximise drainage and control flooding. The channelisation of UK rivers drastically increased after World War I to increase their efficiency for the transport of materials such as coal (3,4). This loss in river naturalness led to a decline in riparian zones and therefore species richness, as many invertebrates and amphibians rely on river banks / shallow beds to lay eggs and reproduce.
Human features of rivers such as dams and weirs reduce a river's connectivity to other watercourses. Animals such as salmon rely on accessibility to upstream sections of the river for breeding, if these areas are blocked off there will be declines in species populations. Leaky dams can be designed to allow the safe passage of fish underneath, making them an excellent option for flood management which does not come at the cost of wildlife.
Unfortunately, at present in England, only 15% of our rivers have a good ecological health status (5) but none have achieved a good overall status. Within Herefordshire (2022), this included:
- River Wye (Hampton Bishop to Kerne Bridge)
- River Wye (Scithwen Beck to Brewardine Bridge)
- River Monnow (Source to Escley Beck)
- Rudhall Beck (Source to confluence River Wye)
- River Teme (Confluence River Onny to confluence River Severn)
To check the health of a river near you, go to The Rivers Trust website for their interactive map
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Leaky dams may appear 'unsightly' to some and perhaps even a bit messy, after all, they can be as simple as a heap of sticks in a ditch! However, their benefits for wildlife, river health, and NFM make this feature a promising option for reducing flood risk to communities in Herefordshire.
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What considerations must be made before installing leaky dams?
Although leaky dams are a natural addition to a river’s landscape, they are classed as an alteration to a watercourse, and therefore consent is required. Leaky dams installed on ordinary watercourses, will require Ordinary Watercourse Flood Defence Consent which can be obtained from your local planning authority and dams installed on main rivers, will require consent from the Environment Agency. To find out what type of watercourse you are working on visit GOV.UK . Planning and reasonable checks must be made prior to work being carried out and additional permissions may be needed for your leaky dam’s construction if it…
Luckily, installing a leaky dam through the Herefordshire NFM Project has been made simpler, as each of our catchment areas has a bespoke ordinary watercourse flood defence consent already in place and our catchment advisors and team will check the area for existing designations, to help ensure all the permissions you need are in place.
To see how this feature has already been implemented into Herefordshire's landscape, see our Croft Castle case study.
It is important to be aware of the rules surrounding the ownership of a watercourse. See the Gov.UK website for more details.
References
- Bylak, A. and Kukuła, K., 2022. Impact of fine-grained sediment on mountain stream macroinvertebrate communities: Forestry activities and beaver-induced sediment management. Science of the Total Environment, 832, p.155079.
- Nisbet, T. 2005. ‘Water Use by Trees’, Forestry Research. Available at https://cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk/2005/03/fcin065.pdf
- Turnbull, G., 1987. Canals, coal and regional growth during the industrial revolution. The Economic History Review, 40(4), pp.537-560.
- Wolf, S., Esser, V., Schüttrumpf, H. and Lehmkuhl, F., 2021. Influence of 200 years of water resource management on a typical central European river. Does industrialization straighten a river?. Environmental Sciences Europe, 33, pp.1-23.
- The Rivers Trust, 2024. 'State of Our Rivers Report', https://theriverstrust.org/rivers-report-2024 Accessed 24 January 2025.
 Figure 4: Seedling ID Training Day - Herefordshire Meadows, 2024
On the 2nd of November 2024, Herefordshire Meadows held their winter management and seedling ID training day, hosted by Kate Gatacre at The Batches in Brockmanton, located within the Cheaton, Cogwell and Ridgemoor brooks NFM catchment. Kate is one of our NFM construction grant scheme recipients who has been working to restore 4.55ha of species-poor grassland using our NFM17 landowner innovation grant.
To begin their meadow restoration, The Batches used a shallow power harrow after the hay cut, before sowing locally sourced, brush harvested seeds. Using locally sourced seeds preserves local flora and increases the chance of successful establishment, as the plants are already adapted to the local climate and soil type. It also reduces the risk of introducing non-native species to the area, promoting biodiversity and avoiding cross-pollination.
During the event, the Herefordshire Meadows team highlighted that ensuring sufficient levels of air, water, and light is vital for germination. If newly restored hay meadows receive enough of each, the seed will be able to better establish across the hay meadow.
Attendees at the event identified many new seedlings in the hay meadow, including:
- Rough hawkbit [Leontodon hispidus]
- Ox-eye daisy [Leucanthemum vulgare]
- Lesser trefoil [Trifolium dubium]
- Meadow buttercup [Ranunculus acris]
- Red clover [Trifolium pratense]
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Where have the UK’s hay meadows gone?
The UK has experienced a rapid decline in hay meadow habitats since the 1930s due to land conversion. This was particularly prevalent during ‘The Green Revolution’ also known as the ‘Third Agricultural Revolution’, whereby agriculture experienced significant advancements to increase crop yields and food production after the Second World War. During this period in the 1940s to the 1980s, extensive pesticide and fertiliser use led to a major decline in insect populations. One of the main culprits of this was DDT, a pesticide that was banned in the UK in 1986.
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Rachel Carson refers to these environmental impacts in her famous book ‘Silent Spring’ 1962, which discusses the loss of birdsong, following insect decline from agricultural intensification.
Why protect hay meadows?
Hay meadows have proven beneficial for both ecological health and natural flood management (NFM). They support a wide range of biodiversity including pollinators, wildflowers, and rare bird species. Healthy hay meadows will also have a range in plant height, which provides shelter and food for invertebrates. Rory Johnson at Herefordshire Meadows, suggests removing livestock in the first Spring after establishing the seeds to avoid livestock eating new seedlings.
A good hay meadow will have diversity in its soil structure, plentiful organic matter, and many small invertebrates (e.g. earthworms), all of which enhance a meadow’s water retention capacity during heavy rainfall. Meanwhile, on the surface, vegetation will slow the flow of water across the field. These factors can help increase the lag time of water reaching downstream communities, reducing flood risk. |
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To read Herefordshire Meadows’ full article on this event, visit their website.
If you are interested in future events Herefordshire Meadows are hosting, more information can also be found on their events page.
Take a look at some of the practices that you could consider implementing onto your land this Spring to early Summer, to enhance habitats and their ability to reduce flood risk!
Figure 7: Considerations for your farm (April – June)
Healthy soil can drastically decrease the runoff of water, which is why it is such an important component of natural flood management (NFM). Healthy soil will have a range of sediment sizes which enable the movement of nutrients and water throughout. As well as a range of pore sizes, good soil will be abundant with microbes (e.g. mycorrhizal fungi), organic matter, and other small living organisms such as worms which help aerate and loosen the soil. Healthy soil is usually composed of 50% organic matter with the remaining 50% being space for water and air to allow for effective drainage and aeration. Clay soils are often associated with waterlogging because of their tiny particle size, which allows particles to clump together and decrease available air and water space between them, unlike sand and silt. Grit, sand, and gravel are often added to clay soil to vary the particle sizes and increase the volumes of empty space in the soil to improve the drainage.
Activities such as overgrazing, nutrient-overloading and depletion, land conversion, and excessive ploughing are some of the many ways soil health can be reduced. Identifying these practices is the first step in implementing changes to your farming practice. The Noble Research Institute has created an experiment that effectively demonstrates the effects of crop cover on sediment runoff and infiltration in this short video.
How can you improve your soil’s health?
Activities that enhance soil health, not only improve the soils’ ability to hold water and drain freely but also make them more resilient to a changing climate. Figure 8 displays how you can improve your soil health. For more information on practices that improve soil health see the NFU webpage.
Figure 8: Practices that improve soil health
Soil tests you can conduct easily at home!
Whilst soil testing can be conducted in a lab, this can often be quite expensive. There are, however, ways in which you can easily determine your soil’s health for free at home through simple tests.
Soil is composed of silt, clay, and sand particles. Ideally, your soil should be a healthy mixture of all three. By understanding the composition of your soil, you can determine if it lacks one of these three particle sizes.
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To do this, take a jam jar filled with water and take 5 or so small handfuls of soil from varying locations of your field or garden from ~8 inches deep. Place these in the jar and give it a good shake, then allow the mixture to settle for a few hours. Layers will begin to form with clay particles at the top, silt in the middle, and sand settling at the bottom (Figure 9). Then, using a ruler to work out the size of each layer, we can work out the percentage of silt/clay/sand by dividing the height of each layer by the total height of the water in the jar (Figure 10). |
When we have our 3 percentages, we can look at a soil pyramid like this one in Figure 11, and draw lines across the pyramid corresponding to the percentage of each texture to get an overlap in one of the sections. |
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For example, if you had 20% clay, 40% sand, and 40% silt, the lines would overlap in the ‘Loam’ section, which means that the soil has a healthy mixture of all three grain sizes. If the intersections of each cross over in the ‘Silty clay’ section of the triangle, you can determine that your soil likely lacks sand.
Figure 11: Soil texture traingle (1)
If you want to conduct an even quicker test, smell your soil. Healthy soil will smell earthy and rich, not ‘eggy’ or particularly metallic (which often indicates waterlogged, anoxic clay soils). Healthy soils will be darker due to their higher organic content, whereas lighter soils generally lack life and therefore appear grey.
Another way to check your soil is by rubbing a small amount between your fingertips. Sandy soil will feel gritty while silty soil will feel softer and almost fluffy in texture. If you add a few drops of water and it feels slippery, it has more clay in. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) have a helpful flowchart to help you determine your soil texture by hand. This method is much less accurate than the jam jar option but is a good, quick way to indicate soil texture.
These simple tests can give you a snapshot of your soil’s health, but there are plenty of other vital components to your soil that are worth checking. Earthworms, for example, make the soil 90% more efficient at infiltration (2). This can significantly reduce flood risk and soil saturation.
If you would like to learn how to conduct soil tests on your farm or garden, the AHDB have a range of guidance including comprehensive soil tests and earthworm counting instructions.
Herefordshire Meadows, one of the Herefordshire NFM Projects steering group partners, has more information and useful links on their ‘Importance of Soils’ webpage if you would like to do more research.
References
- Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, n.d. ‘How to determine soil texture’, https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/how-to-determine-soil-texture Accessed 8 April 2025.
- European Commission. Directorate-General for the Environment, 2010. The Factory of Life: Why Soil Biodiversity is So Important. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Flooding is increasingly a major issue within the county and it is vital that we intervene. The flooding of properties and roads causes not just enormous emotional duress, but has wide-ranging consequences on emergency services, public services such as schools, and the ability of our economy to plan and prosper; as well as damaging roads, sport grounds, and public assets. Flood investigations will be carried out in the coming months in areas that flooded significantly during 2024. As the lead local flood authority we will be working with communities, other public or voluntary sector bodies, and indeed central government, to ensure a coordinated approach. Through this work, we will have a better understanding of the flood issues (and potential solutions). The £2 million will be invested in measures including additional community flood support and local flood resilience schemes, building on the already existing drainage grants that help with localised solutions. The welcome addition of three new members of staff to the Flood Risk Management & Drainage team will hopefully mean we can respond quickly and effectively to flooding challenges.
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Figure 12: The FloodPod informing locals in Leominster on Property Flood Resilience (PFR)
On Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of March 2025, Herefordshire welcomed the ‘FloodPod’ to Leominster, Peterchurch, Ledbury, and Ross-on-Wye. The FloodPod travels around the country along with flooding advisor Mary Long-Dhonau OBE, commonly referred to as ‘Flood Mary’, helping communities to understand how they can protect their homes from flooding. Two of our Natural Flood Management (NFM) Team also helped man the flood pod, highlighting the progress of our NFM project which works upstream of communities impacted by flooding. Mary has plenty of experience within this field, having previously been the CEO of the National Flood Forum as well as dealing firsthand with the impacts of property flooding herself. She now runs a flood consultancy business and has an active involvement within communities, providing support to flood victims and insights into the kinds of flood mitigation measures they can consider for their homes – also known as property flood resilience.
What is Property Flood Resilience (PFR)?
Property Flood Resilience or PFR, is a term to describe any measure undertaken to protect homes or businesses at risk of flooding. PFR offers a holistic approach to flood protection as it can be unique and tailored to any building, new or old. These strategies can involve creating resistance to flooding (e.g. sealants and non-return valves) or resilience to flooding (e.g. more resistant flooring and moving electrical sockets).
The pod contains a variety of PFR measures, including:
- Flood gates/doors
- Puddle pumps
- Flooring options
- Air brick covers and self-closing (SMART) air bricks
- Pan seals and bungs for toilets
- Non-return valves
Some of our NFM team were also on hand to chat to members of the public about how they can better prepare for flooding as well as highlighting the work going on in upper catchment areas with farmers and landowners to help slow the flow through the Herefordshire NFM project.
Why is learning about PFR important?
If you, or any friends or family, experience flooding within your property, learning about PFR is a vital resource to ensure both a faster recovery after a flood as well as minimising the chance for flood water to enter your property – see more at https://www.befloodready.uk/herefordshire. Whilst schemes such as the Herefordshire NFM project are an important component of flood risk management, PFR can drastically reduce an individual property’s flood damage, as 1 in 100 flood events become more common.
If you would like to learn more about Flood Mary and the work she does across the country, you can visit her website for help and resources and her Property Flood Resilience eBook.
The recent and sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) grant scheme came as a shock to many. See the Herefordshire Rural Hub’s website for recent updates on the SFI grant scheme and more information on new and upcoming grant schemes that have opened for farmers, in their March 2025 newsletter.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with financial pressures or stress, we have attached some links below to external support.
Further support and helpful links:
Find mental health and wellbeing support in your area – NFUonline
Mental Health Support in Herefordshire:
We Are farming Minds
08088 020070 (call)
07786 203130 (text)
wearefarmingminds@gmail.com
Business, information & support network in Herefordshire:
Herefordshire Rural Hub
01432 268428
hub@herefordshireruralhub.co.uk
Get free tailored NFM Advice
Catchment Advisors from the Wye and Usk Foundation and Severn Rivers Trust are available to give free tailored advice about the NFM opportunities on your land. The advisors are also able to advise and support you in securing funding to deliver the recommended NFM opportunities.
If you'd like to get some advice or find out more, please email: nfm@herefordshire.gov.uk
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Get funding to deliver NFM
The Herefordshire NFM Construction Grant Scheme offers financial support to landowners within the seven NFM Catchment areas to deliver NFM measures on their land.
Apply now to get funding for NFM projects containing any of the measures detailed in the table below.
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Key contacts:
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