Welcome to the third edition of the Upper Wye Catchment Restoration Project newsletter

The Upper Wye Catchment Restoration Project #RestoreUpperWye is funded by Welsh Government’s Nature and Climate Emergency Fund, part of the Water Capital Programme, to restore the condition of the upper River Wye. 

The overall aim of this project is to protect species and enhance habitats by addressing a range of pressures affecting the river. 

For more background to the project have a look at Newsletter No 1

Each article in this edition has been written by our project officers to give an on-the-ground experience of the work being completed by the programme.

And now, here's what we've been up to since our last edition....

1. Our First Farm Scheme - Hilary Foster

Photo: Newly fenced buffer zones alongside the river Irfon

Over the last few weeks we have been undertaking our first farm scheme on a beautiful stretch of the river Irfon, south west of Builth Wells. This stretch of river is one of the only remaining sites in the Wye catchment which supports the endangered Freshwater Mussel, and also has a population of threatened native White Clawed Crayfish.

We are collaborating with the landowner and the Freshwater Habitats Trust to create a buffer zone along 1.6Km of the Irfon, a floodplain wetland and a comprehensive livestock water supply system.

The project delivers a range of benefits to the river and its endangered species, as well as land management benefits to the farmer, including:

• Protection of the river channel (and the Freshwater Mussels) from livestock access and trampling.
• Enhanced riparian zone, allowing the development of a healthy habitat structure.
• Reduction in sediment and nutrients entering the river.
• Creation of new wetland habitat on the floodplain, to be appropriately grazed by cattle.
• Stabilised banks.
• Improved livestock safety and ease of management.
• More sustainable and flexible use of the farmland facilitated by the provision of a new water supply.

All fencing and water supply has been fully funded by the Upper Wye Catchment Restoration project, utilising Welsh Government funding with some water troughs funded by Freshwater Habitats Trust. We’re looking forward to seeing the benefits of this scheme unfold, and will undertake monitoring of the site to capture the expected biodiversity gains which we can share with you in the future.

Photos: Left: Water trough installed to keep stock out of the river. Right: Tractor laying water pipe to fill the trough

2. Minister visits our Project - Susie Tudge

Photos: Members of the Upper Wye team meet Huw Irranca-Davies to see Slow the Flow work at Tarenig Forest – blocking drainage channels with locally sourced material

It was fantastic to welcome Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister with responsibility for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, to Tarenig Forest on the Upper Wye last week. We explained more to him about the whole project and he saw first hand the work being undertaken to Slow the Flow in the forest.

The approach we are taking in the Tarenig Forest is a great example of work that can be done on Welsh Government estate to contribute to restoring natural river processes and increasing future resilience to climate change. We will use this as an exemplar demonstration site for other forest managers.

The Deputy First Minister commented that "We are determined to keep improving our rivers across Wales, including the Wye, and it’s great to see the progress being made. This work in the upper Wye catchment will benefit the whole river, making it more resilient to climate change and extreme weather and also protecting precious wildlife.”

3. Action on the Ground on the Afon Bidno - Nick Young

Photo: Cutting trees to add to the Bidno Slow the Flow scheme

Works were completed earlier this week on a Slow the Flow project along a kilometre and a half of the Afon Bidno in the NRW-managed Hafren Forest, on the Upper Wye.

Under supervision from project staff, contractors felled self-seeded conifers from alongside the river and placed cut material into the water, with the intention of increasing the amount of large deadwood in the watercourse. Deadwood is a vital, and often missing component of our streams and rivers. It has the beneficial effects of altering and slowing water flow and provides a greater variety of river features and habitats for wildlife. The wood also provides food for aquatic insects, and in turn amphibians, fish, and animals like otter.

Photo: A new leaky dam across the Afon Bidno

Bankside willow trees were also pleached – partially cut through and bent over to touch the ground (similar to laying a hedge). Where the willow branches touch the ground, both in river and on wet land alongside, they will quickly develop roots and form denser, bushier trees. Within the river and on the banks, these thickets form shade which helps keep river waters cool and again provide habitat. On low-lying land by the river, these areas of willow scrub will also slow overland flow and filter water as it flows into the river.

The Bidno site lies within a productive conifer forest, and is very accessible. We are confident that as the site develops we will be able to invite stakeholders to see how these low-cost works can help to deliver benefits for the river itself, and also for the wider landscape around it. As mentioned in the article above, we have also started a similar project in Tarenig Forest and we hope that the techniques can be rolled out to deliver the same benefits  for water quality and river health on other sites across the Wye catchment and beyond.

We're keen to use these projects as 'demonstration sites' to show others the benefits and how any risks are managed. We will keep you updated with our progress in future newsletters and follow #Bidno and #Tarenig. 

4. INNS: Out of sight, never out of mind - Nickie Moore

This project’s Invasive Non-Natives Species (INNS) work focuses on the 3 most invasive plants in the Wye catchment – Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and American Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus). These are actively spreading with ever increasing impacts on wildlife and river resilience, on our economy and lifestyle.

Over this winter these plants have been out of sight and dormant, either as thousands of seeds in the soil, mud or shingle banks, as with the balsam; as deep roots in banks like the knotweed; or as both like the skunk cabbage.

Other than the dried remains of last year’s tall balsam or knotweed stems, the presence of these INNS is evident only by the absence of any native vegetation and the stretches of bare riverbank - these large annuals literally overshadow all other plants and prevent their growth, securing their own chance of successful germination or emergence the following spring.

Left: Dried Himalayan Balsam thatch in winter (RPS Group Plc) | Right: Dried Japanese Knotweed canes in winter (GBNNSS)

High rainfall and floods can easily erode these bare banks. This is bad news for river life as habitats become choked by sediment, but the erosion actually benefits our three prolific spreaders -  floodwaters carry their seeds or plant fragments downstream, where they settle out and take root in new backwaters and floodplains.

However, there’s still a lot of room for optimism. If we work together we can help to halt their spread and restore our river ecosystems, and, the sooner we act, the lower the costs – environmental, economic and social - will be.

What to look out for

As the weather warms, this is what we will start to see around river corridors and floodplains:

Left: Masses of Himalayan Balsam seedlings in April (GBNNSS) | Right: Himalayan Balsam seedlings (leaves approx. 2cm long)

Left: Emerging Japanese Knotweed shoots (GBNNSS) | Right: Emerging yellow American Skunk Cabbage flowers (Dick Shaw)

Four Actions for this Spring

1. Let’s get recording – this spring the team will be out recording these species around target catchments, particularly making note of the upstream limit of these plants, and planning management actions for the year ahead. But we do need your help to get the full picture – the upper Wye is a huge area!

Included below are ID sheets and a link to the INNS Mapper website where you can add new records. Or you can install the INNS Mapper app on your mobile phone to log records when you’re out and about.

ID Sheet - Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan Balsam)

ID Sheet - Lysichiton americanus (American Skunk Cabbage)

ID Sheet - Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed)

INNS Mapper website: https://innsmapper.org

With landowner permission:

2. Live-head American skunk cabbage flowers – live-heading the yellow flowers as soon as they appear will stop yet more seeds from building up in the soil – the seeds are viable for up to 8 years! If cut before the seeds mature, the flowers can be left on site. Remember to clean off your footwear before leaving the site, scraping the treads where seeds can get lodged and transported. 

3. Get those balsam seedlings while they're small! –  hoeing is a really effective way of uprooting large areas of balsam seedlings which then die. Best done on a dry day. It’ll need to be repeated, but it’s easier tackling seedlings than 2 metre tall adult plants. Important to brush off your kit before leaving the site as seeds are easily transported on equipment and in boot treads.

4. Help us to find suitable sites for Balsam Rust Trials – rust fungus is a biological control specific to Himalayan balsam which weakens the balsam, allowing native plants to establish. Working with CABI, we are looking for several trial sites that meet key criteria. If you’re an upper Wye landowner with balsam and interested in hosting a trial, please get in touch to see whether your site fits the criteria.

A Date for your Diary

This year Invasive Species Week is 12-18 May 2025. To find out more visit Invasive Species Week » NNSS. We are planning one or two local activities, joining a long list of events that’ll be taking place across the UK, so watch this space!

5. Latest SAC and WFD Data Released - Susie Tudge

NRW released the latest figures on the health of Wales’ waterbodies this month. These Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Water Framework Directive (WFD) surveys are repeated every 4 years and show long term trends in the health of our water bodies. Data on phosphorus levels in Welsh Special Area of Conservation (SAC) rivers shows small improvements, while interim water quality classifications for Welsh rivers hold steady.

The Upper Wye Catchment Restoration Project will review and use this latest evidence to help direct the focus of our work.

For more information from NRW on the SAC and WFD classifications visit: Natural Resources Wales / New water quality data sheds light on health of Wales’s waters

A more detailed view of the data can be found here: Water Watch Wales

Photo: Overlooking the upper Wye above Llangurig 

6. Innovative Drone Surveys - Brendan Adair

Aerial: Upper Bidno valley where the project is undertaking slow the flow work.

To start to monitor our Slow the Flow work on the Afon Bidno and in Tarenig Forest, we completed state of the art drone surveys to gather site data ahead of the work. We will use these pre-work surveys as the baseline and then conduct identical drone surveys to measure how the site changes over time as a result of our work. So, it is important to ensure that drone flights are repeatable to accurately detect landscape changes, and we use an RTK module that enables the drone to georeference itself accurately in the horizontal and vertical axes.

Our drone captures high-resolution optical images and multispectral images, which are images captured across a broad light spectrum, allowing detailed analysis and comparison. By stitching the images together, we can create a high-resolution bird's-eye view called a Georeferenced Orthomosaic (GO). GOs can be interpreted through visual comparison and through in-depth analysis. An example of a GO analysis technique is to visualise it in 3D by creating a Point Cloud. Point clouds are a novel technique to measure small changes in the channel and landscape. Cross sectional channel analysis from the point cloud, combined with a Hillshade visualisation, is a powerful tool for measuring and communicating the impact of Slow the Flow structures on the channel.

Image: An example a high resolution georeferenced orthomosaic from the Tarenig forest created by stitching many still images together

Image: An example of Hillshade analysis of a section of the Bidno site. Hillshade is a good tool for representing the contours of the landscape and where the channel is located in its floodplain

Multispectral datasets allow us to examine a broader light spectrum. This is an analytical tool which can be used for a wide range of functions from measuring vegetation health to detecting terrain hardness. Multispectral analysis is useful for us because we can filter for the specific wavelength of light we are interested in. In these projects, we will focus on ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. UV reflectance is a reliable indicator of water, allowing us to measure the amount of water retained on the land after an intervention. This is useful for measuring the impact of Slow the Flow works which are designed to hold more water on the land after rain.

Image: Side by side comparison of the same stretch of river from an Optical and Multispectral perspective.  The water in the river reflects a high proportion of UV light which can be selected for and quantified during analysis.

How to get in touch and keep in touch

Do you like this version of our newsletter? If you want to be added to our electronic mailing list for future updates, please let us know via our email address below.

If you'd prefer a paper copy of the newsletter do get in touch.

Email: RestoreUpperWye@NaturalResources.Wales

Web: Upper Wye Catchment Restoration Project Website

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