We’re delighted to have received a huge funding boost for two of our chalk streams thanks to the South Downs National Park Authority! 

We are extremely grateful to have secured £680,000 from the Community Infrastructure Levy and the Wildlife Rich Habitat Fund for projects to improve the resilience of the River Ems and Lavant.

We’ll be reviving 4.3km of chalk stream and 34km2 of floodplain habitat.

Key to this work is restoring natural processes to allow the rivers to self-heal.

We’ll be reconnecting the rivers to their floodplains, introducing large woody debris to improve flow diversity, creating ponds and wetlands, planting trees for shade and to improve floodplain habitat.

At the Ems we are also creating a kingfisher nesting bank and an otter holt.

The projects will also help other key species such as water voles, eels, dormice, bats, trout and wetland bird species, as well as countless invertebrates, the base of a healthy food chain. 

We can’t wait to crack on with these projects, which we hope to deliver next summer so watch this space! 

Huge thanks also to Chichester District Council and the Goodwood Estate whose support enables us to work on the Ems, Hambrook and Lavant to deliver these vital restoration projects which our rivers so desperately need to thrive.