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May 2022

  • Date published

    Friday, 27 May 2022

News from the team

Planning in partnership with water companies

We ran a workshop with Dorset Local Nature Partnership and Hampshire Avon Catchment Partnership, for 30 partners to contribute to building up long term partnership projects with Wessex Water and Bournemouth Water. 

The workshop will be followed up with subsequent sessions that will delve into more detail about potential projects in specific geographical areas.

Interdisciplinary groups solving multi-factor issues

The Poole Harbour Fisheries Group met in late April at the River Labs in East Stoke, and were given a tour by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) which included seeing salmonids in the smolt trap on the River Frome on their migration out to sea. GWCT's research suggests that a significant proportion of salmon may be dying in Poole Harbour and not continuing their migration out to sea, so the group discussed possible causes and mitigation measures for this.


The Dorset Peat partnership will be looking for some survey and monitoring support at potential peatland restoration sites across Dorset this summer. View the broad areas of the potential sites. If you have an interest in survey work or know volunteers within your network who would be good ambassadors to undertake surveys (broad-level vegetation surveys using 10-metre quadrats and a sequence of supplementary measurements to record peat depths, monitoring points with GPS units and fixed point photography) then please contact Grace Herve, Dorset Peat Partnership's Project Manager.
          

Our team is growing

We’re pleased to announce that we'll be hosting Louise Stratton as Development Manager for the Poole Harbour Nutrient Management Scheme on behalf of Poole Harbour Agricultural Group.

Many of our partners will already know Louise from her time as NFU County Advisor for Dorset. Having been closely involved in the development of PHNMS, working with the farmer group and the wider farming community in the catchment, and also supporting other farmer clusters in the wider region, Louise couldn't be in a better position to support the scheme through its pilot stage.

We hope you'll join us in welcoming Louise to her new role once she starts in June.

Codesigning funding bids

We also facilitated a workshop in early May at the Kingcombe Centre alongside the River Hooke to develop a programme on chalk streams and salmonids in the Upper Frome and Piddle. Key partners working in the region helped to agree on what the key outcomes should be, where current work can be built upon, what data needs to be gathered and who else should be involved in delivery.



Both our Poole Harbour and Stour Delivery Groups met in person last week to discuss current and emerging projects in their respective catchments and how plans for the upcoming year align.

We really appreciated seeing you all and especially introducing a few new faces to the partnership:

  • Stuart Boyles has joined the Environment Agency as manager for the Heart of Wessex programme, which will span the headwaters of four catchments including the Stour.
  • Colleen Smith Moore, Assistant Rivers & Wetlands Conservation Officer for Dorset Wildlife Trust, who will be leading the Water Guardians programme in Dorset.
  • Tom Aspin from Wessex Water who is leading the Flagship Chalk Stream Restoration project on the Hooke, Wraxall Brook and upper Frome.
  • Lucy Walker, new Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer for the Stour and Hampshire Avon.

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