Acknowledgements

Volunteers The huge number of volunteers who put their time towards monitoring river health every year

Thanks to all past, current and in advance,

future volunteers. We can do nothing without you.

A huge thank you to Matt Edworthy who completed his role as the Taw and Torridge Riverfly Co-ordinator in August. Matt has worked since 2014 to set up Riverfly on the Torridge and unfortunately had to pass it on in 2017. In the four years since it started the project has come on leaps and bounds and there are now also active sites on the River Taw.

Background

Riverfly in the Torridge catchment was established in 2014, through a partnership with the North Devon Biosphere and Devon Wildlife Trust. It has been running now for 4 years and is one of the larger Riverfly projects in the UK, with 25 active sites in 2017 and over 40 registered sites. Since 2016, Riverfly volunteers have also been trained to monitor parts of the Taw catchment with 11 volunteers trained and 6 active sites.

The programme is almost entirely volunteer led and consists of a combination of anglers, conservationists and local river enthusiasts. It is designed to help detect pollution incidents through the identification of river invertebrates and the abundance of each group. This gives a score for each site which, if falls below the trigger level set for the site by the Environment Agency, proceeds with further action in the form of a second survey by the Catchment Coordinator or involvement of statutory bodies such as the Environment Agency. As well as detecting pollution events, the surveys can also monitor long-term changes in overall river health and act as a deterrent to polluters.

Riverfly National Review – From the Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring

Initiative (ARMI) Project Manager

Whilst 2017 has been exceptionally busy for the Riverfly Partnership (RP), with a change of host in April and a strategic refocus of Anglers Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) deliverables for this year, the ARMI network also has been in full flow. During the year to date, 54 ARMI training workshops have been delivered to 597 ARMI volunteers and £308,250 of in-kind ARMI coordinator and volunteer time has been committed alongside the rod licence funding which RP receives from the Environment Agency.

ARMI volunteers regularly monitor 1955 sites UK wide and continue to detect pollution incidents, reporting vital information to local statutory body contacts. Across the UK, strongly established ARMI hubs and groups are providing the spine to support Riverfly Plus, and other citizen science, initiatives, such as Extended Riverfly (siltation & low flows) and Outfall Safari (developed and first run by the Citizen Crane project in the Crane Valley catchment).

As always, my continued and sincere thanks to every single ARMI volunteer, coordinator, tutor and partner for your ongoing commitment to protecting and conserving our rivers across the United Kingdom. Special thanks to all rod licence paying anglers and the Environment Agency for providing funding support to ARMI in England, to SEPA for providing strategic support to ARMI in Scotland, to RP host the Freshwater Biological Association and to RP Chair, Steve Brooks.

Riverfly Report 2017

New Volunteers trained in 2016 and 2017 (Taw and Torridge)

In May 2016, nine new volunteers were trained at Hatherleigh Community Centre. For the first time, two volunteers who took part were the beginning of Riverfly in the Taw catchment. They purchased their own equipment and at the end of the season, one site was active (Nymet Rowland) and 3 samples were taken. During 2017, a second training event was held at the Fox and Hounds (Eggesford), with 11 volunteers trained including 9 new Taw volunteers as well as 3 new Torridge volunteers. There are now 6 active sites in the Taw catchment.

River Torridge

2017 update

The last Riverfly sampling for 2017 was done by the Torridge volunteers in October. Despite the difficulties accessing some stretches due to poor weather towards the end of the season, during the year, 103 samples were collected from 25 active sites. 3 new volunteers were trained up at the start of the season and 4 already registered sites were taken on by new volunteers, including Dymsdale Wood Bridge, Sutcombe Mill and Hatherleigh CC. Since Matt’s departure from the North Devon Biosphere in August, the Torridge Riverfly project has been taken on by Izzy Moser at Devon Wildlife Trust. Izzy can be contacted via email at [email protected].

Results

The data, which in some catchments has been collected for 4 years now, really shows either declining or improving river water quality across the Torridge catchment. Overall, the results show that 7 rivers have strongly improved since the start of Riverfly and 3 rivers have clearly declining water quality. Some patterns from tributaries are less clear with variable water quality throughout the survey period.

3 samples on two different tributaries; the Dipple Water and the Pulworthy Brook, failed their trigger level. The trigger level breach on the Pulworthy Brook which was reported in August was given an Environment Agency reference number. The stream has been assessed in previous years and is known to suffer from chronic low flow stress. The river was otherwise reported as healthy by the volunteer and additional surveys were not required.

The trigger level breach which occurred in the Dipple Water has also been investigated by Michael Thomas following previous trigger level breaches and is under investigation from known upstream impacts by Andrew Fuller, the local Environment Officer. Andrew carried out a site check shortly after the trigger level breach and investigations upstream are being carried out. The stream also suffers from low flow stress. For the full data, please see the separate PDF included with this document.

6

Riverfly Report 2017

Riverfly Events have also been held at Hatherleigh Primary School and at the annual Hatherleigh Fair, delivered by Elizabeth Durrant (River Lew Riverfly Volunteer).

Professor Sir John Lawton Visit

In 2016 Professor Sir John Lawton, former head of the Natural Environment Research Council and President of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, visited the River Torridge Nature Improvement Area. As part of that he travelled to a Riverfly site, closely monitored by Gordon Murray during an invertebrate survey, to discuss the importance of Riverfly monitoring in the Torridge catchment. It was Sir Lawton’s Report entitled ‘Making Space for Nature’ which led to the development of Nature Improvement Areas, of which the Torridge catchment was one of 12 in England.

7

Riverfly Report 2017

Freshwater Pearl Mussel Project Update 2017

This summer, the project achieved an exciting milestone. Thanks to our expert advisors from Ireland, we were able to confirm live juveniles mussels for the first time in over 50 years. The juvenile mussels which had previously encysted on brown trout dropped off at our captive rearing facility in North Devon. This enabled us to collect and return them to the River Torridge in specially selected locations. The captive breeding programme is currently in its second year, and during October 2017, the project was able to confirm a second year of successful glochidia (larvae) attachment on host fish.

This programme of work is part of the national ‘Restoring Freshwater Mussel Rivers in England’ funded by Biffa Award and co-ordinated by the Freshwater Biological Association. It is the first to trial this short- term breeding method in England.

Along with the captive breeding programme, the project delivers an array of measures to improve local water quality including tree planting, riverbank erosion management, tree coppicing, watercourse fencing, forestry track improvements, farm yard improvements, farm advice and workshops.