April 2024 saw the official launch of the River Allen Landscape Recovery project, marking the start of our journey to safeguard and enhance the unique ecosystem along the River Allen. The new project team – Bronwen (Project Manager), Sadie (Ecology Officer) and Jonathan (Project Administrator) have been getting stuck in, working alongside the Allen’s committed land managers to work out how to achieve these goals together.
The last two months have seen the project team working hard to get the project up and running.
We have been out and about meeting individual landowners along the river, to understand what they want the Landscape Recovery scheme to achieve. We’ve also been engaging with wider stakeholders and the local community to encourage involvement in the project and identify how the project can provide wider social benefits.
With only a two-year timeline before we move into the implementation stage of the project, work is quickly pushing ahead.
The next stage of work will focus on collecting comprehensive baseline data across the River Allen for a range of different factors, from heritage to hydrology. Our goal is to understand the habitats and species currently present across the landscape, and the condition of these before any interventions are planned.
With the help of specialist contractors, our team have already started undertaking pollinator surveys, looking for bees and butterflies across the river’s headwaters. Baseline habitat surveys have also just begun, and within the next month, we’ll commence a program of regular water quality testing, with the aim of identifying key areas where the river and its surrounding habitat can be improved.
What’s next?
Over the coming months we’ll continue to collect and analyse data, so keep an eye out for future posts, I’m sure we will have some exciting results to share with you.
