Environment
The Deal
The Wye near the Marteg confluence
The Wye has been voted Britain's number 1 river yet oddly it's currently one of it's most polluted rivers. Here we'd like to focus on just one thing at the moment and that is the campaign to clean it up. It's critical that we do what we can to help.
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The facts are these: the millions of chickens and the vast numbers of other livestock in the catchment (it's the chicken basket of the nation) is producing more phosphate than the river can handle. There is a flood of nutrient rich phosphate feeding the algae creating what's known as algae blooms. The river in areas is starved of oxygen and it is green and slimy. Below are the agencies spearheading the campaigns. Please do visit and join. Your voice and presence as a hiker, backpacker or swimmer that enjoys these natural environments will make a difference.
One Wye Not Three
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Agencies/Campaigns
Friends of the Upper Wye were formed in direct response to the threat facing the river Wye. They're spearheading a citizen science program, which you can join and lobbying influencers around the region and UK. We highly recommend you visit their site to see what they're doing and how you can help. Click the link above left.
The Wye Usk Foundation are a Well-established organization that came into being to help preserve the fishing industry in the Wye and Usk region. They have grown into a sizable concern that tackles, not just fishing stocks, but environmental issues such as the recovery of the Wye as a healthy stream in which the natural world should thrive. They're a hive of information.
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Friends of the Lower Wye are again a group formed in direct response to the threat facing the river Wye and its tributaries. They focus on the Lower Wye but are working towards making a difference as partners in the fight against pollution. If you want to get involved and support their work go on over to their facebook page above left.
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River Action are a national group who aim to increase awareness on river pollution and apply the relevant pressure on industries that pollute. They target food production companies who have a direct link to river degradation. To find out more go on over to their site by following the link above.
Save the Wye were one of the first groups to emerge to help literally save the Wye from destruction. It's no joke this is happening to our river and rivers and they recognize that. To join in with the campaign go on over to their facebook page. With regular posts it's a great source of information. Click link above.
The Welsh Rivers Union are very much like River Action and Friends of the Wye only focused on Welsh rivers. However, many Welsh rivers cross into England and like nature the pollution knows no boundary. They are based in Abergavenny. If interested in helping and supporting them (the rivers) click the link.
Their are 1.1 billion broiler chickens slaughtered each year in Britain approximately 25% of which are raised in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Powys is at the forefront to.
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A very good Guardian article with relevant links. Click
Water Clean As Mountain Air
Pumlumon Project
'the project area is the size of Birmingham and includes the sources of the rivers Severn, Wye and Rheidol. the Project is a radical rethink of how the landscapes of upland Britain could work.'
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The method is simple: if local farmers, foresters and tourism businesses can be helped to do things a little differently, the whole landscape, which is very ill in many places, stands to come back to life over time benefiting things far outside the project area.
Click. Find Out More
It's a good idea to reconnect habitats, change grazing patterns, store flood waters, Carbon and see wild life flourish. Our uplands are man made in one way why not another?
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