Help make the River Dart better for people & nature
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River Dart Calendar Launched
A brand new calendar has been launched for 2026 all about the River Dart. A collaboration between printmakers and river user groups with practical ways to care for this beautiful much used waterway. Profits from purchases will be distributed to river-based organisations and charities.
Visit www.ourwaterways.co.uk to find out more and make a purchase.
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Friends of the Dart fundraising
Announcing the Friends of the Dart Autumn/Winter 2025 Crowdfunder
We are raising funds for a River Dart Hub, a platform unlike any other currently available, where all gathered data is transparently and openly held centrally in one place. All this relevant information currently sits in many different places and not presented in any comparable formats, which makes it hard to access and reach any solid conclusions about what our water company is doing.
This new River Dart Hub will help us and our communities as well as other stakeholders including the Environment Agency and the Regulator to witness and analyse for the first-time data around water company spill practises. From EA permit data, to rain flow patterns and population size around every outflow and asset, it will become clearer and evident exactly why spills are happening. Once up and running the same platform could inspire and be used by other organisations for other rivers nationally; not part of this project scope but part of our long-term goal for the platform.
This Crowdfunder will run for 6 weeks:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/river-water-hub
On Sunday 2st of November 2025 35 kayaks will start from Dartmouth and travel upstream to Dittisham. Just take part or get sponsored to take part!
Nicky Rajska’s sponsorship page
www.friendsofthedart.org
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Help to buy a woodland
Buckland Wood is in the heart of Devon’s temperate rainforest zone and lies northwest of Ausewell Wood, another incredible rainforest site we purchased with your help in 2019 and co-own with the National Trust. Thanks to your support, five years of restoration work has helped bring sunlight to dormant ancient soils, removed non-native species and created a thriving habitat for rare wildlife including pine martens, raptors and pied flycatchers. Now, we urgently need to do the same next door at Buckland Wood. Based on what we know about Ausewell, restoring Buckland Wood could potentially support and benefit many threatened species. This includes mammals such as dormouse, otter and 12 species of bats, as well as breeding and winter migrant birds like goshawk, peregrine falcon and redwing.
We've been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy and restore 102 hectares (252 acres) of this rare habitat. Owning Buckland Wood gives us an opportunity to connect existing sites and as a result, boost the biodiversity and resilience of a much larger area, and expand and buffer vital ‘refugia’ habitats where precious wildlife can thrive. We’ll also have significant opportunities to work with neighbouring landowners to connect and restore the landscape at scale, which will be transformative for the region. The wood’s mature conifer crop was expected to attract significant commercial interest, so we had to act quickly to secure the sale of this precious site. Now that Buckland Wood is under our care, we urgently need your help to raise the £2.8 million cost back. The good news is that a long-time friend and supporter of the Woodland Trust has pledged to match every donation, up to £750,000.
https://woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/give/appeals/buckland-wood/
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Saltmarsh Project
A partnership of local organisations including The Bioregional Learning Centre, The Sharpham Trust, Dart Harbour Authority and The Environment Agency have been delivering a Saltmarsh Project on the River Dart. Leaky dams have been installed to help retain sediment and reverse erosion and a new board walk installed at Long Marsh in Totnes together with a programme or artistic interventions. Stonewalling surrounding the larger saltmarsh at Sharpham point has been repaired by a local stonewaler with the stone delivered on a barge thanks to Dart Harbour. The partners are now looking at the possibility of recreating saltmarsh at Sharpham where historic maps show it was once more widespread. A report has been commissioned from 5 Rivers and it is hoped that volunteers will help install more leaky dams on mudflats to collect sediment and recreate the lost marsh. Funding is currently being sought by the partners.
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The Environment Agency
Dave Shorten takes over as the Environment Agency South Devon Catchment Co-ordinator from Emma Magee, thanks to Emma for all her hard work over the years in South Devon and we look forward to working with her in her new role. Dave is getting to know the patch and can be contacted via e-mail alex.shorten@environment-agency.gov.uk
Environment Agency continues to support the Dart Saltmarsh Project with Water Environment Investment Funding (WEIF) working with Dart Harbour Authority, The Bioregional Learning Centre, South Devon National Landscape and Sharpham Trust.
Bathing water sampling has continued throughout the summer with the 2025 designations based on the sampling expected in Nov/Dec. Alongside this EA teams have been carrying out additional walkovers and sampling with stakeholders to better understand the various tributaries in the catchment and how these might affect bathing waters.
Ecological surveys including fish surveys as part of the national Water Environment Regulations waterbody status monitoring have been completed.
In more general news the 2025 waterbody ecological status designations are expected to be published by the end of the year.
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Bidwell Brook Living Laboratory Research
This project, part of the wider Bidwell Living Laboratory programme of projects being run or planned with different universities, focuses on tackling fine sediment pollution in the Bidwell Brook. It is being delivered in collaboration with the University of Plymouth, aiming to improve water quality, ecological health, and community stewardship. The project seeks to identify the primary sources of sediment, examine seasonal and spatial variations, and analyse connections with land management practices in order to develop targeted mitigation strategies and monitor their effectiveness.
A combined approach will be used, integrating desktop studies with fieldwork. GIS mapping and hydrological modelling will identify high-risk erosion zones, while field surveys will assess bank stability and erosion hotspots. Baseline biodiversity assessments and systematic water and soil sampling, alongside turbidity and flow monitoring with in-situ sensors, will provide robust data. Citizen scientists trained to CaSTCo Tier 2 standards will support monitoring, while workshops and collaboration with farmers and landowners will drive practical interventions.
The project will generate detailed evidence of fine sediment sources and impacts, leading to actionable land management recommendations in priority sub-catchments. It will establish a baseline for long-term impact assessment, build stronger community engagement, and offer a scalable model for reducing sediment pollution in other catchments.
For further details please email info@bidwellbrook.org
www.bidwellbrook.org
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Nature Recovery Funding
South West Water has announced the Nature Recovery Fund which will distribute £2 million from water company fines to local projects across Devon and Cornwall. The fund will support measurable biodiversity or water quality improvements. Charities and other community groups can apply for either up to £10,000 or £250,000. Applications needs to be in by the 31st January 2026.
https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/environment/projects/nature-recovery-fund
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Local Nature Recovery Strategy Consultation
The Devon Local Nature Recovery Strategy gives an overview of Devon’s wildlife and sets out priorities and actions to help nature recover. It’s a tool to help us all do our bit to create a wildlife-rich Devon, today and for generations to come.
The strategy is out for public consultation until the 5th November 2025.
www.naturerecoverydevon.org.uk/
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Devon Swift Project
Swifts are amongst our best-loved birds. A band of Swifts screaming through our towns and villages at dusk is one of the sounds and spectacles of summer. They arrive back here at the beginning of May and leave in August so they spend a very short period of time with us to lay eggs and raise young. Everything else they do on the wing, eating, drinking, mating. In fact, a young Swift might never land for the first three or four years of its life and, in that time, it will travel each year to Africa and back, a distance of 14,000 miles or more. But Swifts are in trouble - since 1995 we have lost over two-thirds of our Swifts, mostly because of a lack of nest sites.
The Devon Swift Project is working to reverse this downward trend. We are installing nest boxes for Swifts in churches across Devon: 54 churches to date housing over 2000 individual boxes. The Dart Valley Fund has generously supported this work in communities along the Dart catchment. We now have permission to install boxes into the three churches in Dartmouth, St. Clement, St. Petrox and St. Saviour, and we hope soon to have permission for the church in Dittisham. All the boxes will be installed by the end of this year, in plenty of time before the Swifts return. To attract the birds, an audio caller is used to play Swift calls, as the birds preferentially choose sites where other Swifts are already nesting. Next, if funding is available, we plan to install boxes in other churches along the Dart, including Kingswear, Stoke Gabriel, Cornworthy, Stoke Fleming, all the way to Totnes – where we have already installed boxes into both churches – and beyond. Next spring, with funding from the Dart Valley Fund, the Devon Swift Project is planning to organise an open meeting in Totnes to inform and inspire the local community about Swifts and to encourage people to install boxes on their homes, schools and community spaces. In the coming years, the Dart Valley will once again be home to a thriving population of Swifts. The Devon Swift Project put out an SOS (Save Our Swifts) and the Dart Valley Fund stepped up – thank you.
https://devonswiftproject.co.uk/
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Pic credit: Mike Cooke, Ambios
Sharpham Wild About Trees
Our tree planting project is a collaboration between The Sharpham Trust and Ambios. It is funded by Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest to provide support for bringing trees and people into the landscape to aid biodiversity loss and climate change. The project continues to make impressive progress with 3,260 trees planted so far, including the creation of two new 160-metre hedgerows. This valuable work will enhance biodiversity and provide important wildlife corridors connecting up existing habitats.
Looking ahead, the team is preparing for another busy planting season, with 2,570 additional trees scheduled to be planted this winter.
Community engagement has been a key focus over the project, with 16 school visits reaching 551 students, 8 tree planting camps involving 103 participants, 647 volunteer days and 14 nature-inspired events attended by 225 people. These experiences have brought people together, deepening their connection to the land and nature and inspiring a shared commitment to protect and nurture our environment. These efforts are helping to create a lasting legacy of trees in the landscape, enhance wildlife connectivity, and enrich community action in building a more resilient future together.
www.ambios.net
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Pic credit: Duchy of Cornwall, Charles Sainsbury-Plaice
Tree planting on Dartmoor with Moor Trees
Join Moor Trees this winter on their regular (Thursday and Sunday) tree planting days where a number of planting sites are being planned around the Dart upper catchment. This includes ongoing work to restore the fragment of temperate rainforest - Wistman's Wood (view film: https://youtu.be/P02SLLsDAwk) with the Duchy of Cornwall and its tenants, Natural England and the Woodland Trust as well as planting nearby on the Duchy estate.
Each year Moor Trees supports a range of landowners to create woodland on Dartmoor. A local charity they are particularly focused on increasing tree cover in the river valleys of Dartmoor. They have recently been part of a flood alleviation plot trial on Harford Moor with the Headwaters project to slow the flow into the Erme river below. They also have two community tree nurseries close to Totnes where they are growing 100,000 local provenance trees to support woodland creation ambitions.
To find out more about their work and to book onto an upcoming volunteering day (tree planting dates to be added in the next few weeks) visit www.moortrees.org
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