April 2022

News from the team

The next few months are shaping up to be a busy time for the partnership, with a series of in-person meetings, workshops, and events in the pipeline. We're looking forward to seeing friendly faces, getting back to real sticky notes, and the all-important side conversations that we've missed during online meetings. We'd like to extend our thanks to everyone in the partnership for making the time for these meetings - your contributions are invaluable in helping us towards our shared vision of Dorset’s river catchments being sustainably healthy, resilient and safe for people and wildlife.

Our Strategy Group is currently reviewing the draft Catchment Strategy and providing their last input and feedback for the document. Once these revisions are complete, the final strategy will be circulated to wider partners later in May.

It's the time of year again to complete the CaBA Monitoring Form, which helps the CaBA National Support Group promote catchment partnerships to stakeholders and is also a useful internal exercise for Dorset Catchment Partnerships to assess and document our progress locally. We'll be in touch soon with the leads of our partnership projects to help us gather the relevant information.

Can our partners please note that Keith Calder, Environment Agency Catchment Co-ordinator, will be on leave for most of May and June. If you’re not sure who best to talk to at the EA during this time, please talk to us and we can help signpost you.

The latest from our catchments

• Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Grace Hervé, the newly recruited Project Manager for the Dorset Peat Partnership. Grace previously worked in the New Forest Higher Level Stewardship team at Forestry England and will be a huge help to the partnership, which is currently choosing which sites across Dorset will provide the best opportunities for future peat restoration works.
• Wessex Water is launching its Phosphorous Reduction Scheme for the River Stour, through which farmers and land managers in the Blackmore Vale and Middle Stour can receive funding for adopting certain practices, described in more detail on the website. Two webinars are being held in the next few days to introduce the scheme: Thursday 28th at 7 pm and Friday 29th of April at 1.30 pm. We ask our partners who work with landowners in the area to please pass on these details. Please note that the application deadline is 23rd May 2022.
• The National Trust has acquired Weston Farm which extends their land ownership along the South Purbeck coast in Dorset to cover St Aldem's Head and the Winspit quarry caves. They plan to use a combination of nature recovery, conservation management and regenerative agriculture on the land which is home to a variety of rare butterflies and bats, as well as improve the accessibility of the paths in the area.