The Project ‘Reconnecting the Salmon Rivers of Wales’ led by Swansea University has been awarded £500,000 for barrier removal from the Nature Networks Fund (Lottery Fund).
Numbers of young salmon in Wales are lower following warmer winters and wetter springs, according to a new study commissioned by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). These findings might explain the widespread juvenile salmon crash observed after the then record warm and wet winter and spring of 2015-16.
Recently, WWF CYMRU and the environmental consultancy, Ecosulis, produced the report, Wales’s Nature Crisis: Recommendations for an immediate emergency response. Within the report, they advocated to the Welsh government that barrier removal will improve river resiliency and promote biodiversity.
The Welsh government has launched its second statutory consultation on the Water Framework Directive, aimed at finding a solution for the "significant water management issues" identified across the country.
Response to the six-month consultation, which closes in December, will feed into the third River Basin Management Plans and the next State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR) required under the Environment Act, according to Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
It is hoped the partnership will bring about “much-needed restoration” for Welsh rivers.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Afonydd Cymru, the organisation which oversees the country’s six Rivers Trusts, which will see two collaborate to improve river catchments, fisheries and ecology.
In a bid to reconnect a river with its natural floodplain, the National Trust and Natural Resources Wales are beginning on a 1km river restoration project to help slow the flow of water and attract more wildlife, such as brown trout and otter, to the Afon Machno in Snowdonia.
One of the longest-running studies of streams in the world – the minute study of 14 brooks that tumble through a remote Welsh mountain landscape – has exposed a troubling loss of riverine wildlife.
Ecologists working on the Llyn Brianne Observatory project in mid Wales, which has been in operation for almost 40 years, have flagged up the disappearance and decline of invertebrates from the streams.
This role is fundamental in providing specialist flood risk responses to planning consultations, ensuring the principles within Welsh Government's Technical Advice Note 15 (Development & Flood Risk) are applied to new developments, reducing the damage floods can do and helping to implement more flood resilient design.
Commercial forestry could help Wales meet its woodland goals.
The Welsh government should work with commercial logging interests to help it plant enough trees to meet its woodland strategy, according to a committee of the National Assembly for Wales.
It would help ameliorate the effects of climate change and makes Wales self sufficient in timber production.
Pressures on water resources in Wales and how companies are addressing these
A strategic approach to delivering more ambitious water efficiency is needed to help ensure enough water for people, the economy and the environment, now and in the future.
