Forests, Streams and Sustainability
Cast your mind back to 2011, we were knee deep in muddy soil, water and well into a 3-year project addressing 16 water bodies in Kielder Forest that were, at the time failing water quality standards, funded by Environment Agency, and the Forestry Commission. Fast forward to 2023 and sustainability within agriculture is still a top priority for the Trust.
Like all intensive land uses, forestry can have a large impact on the river system through input of fine sediments, changes in pH and flow, and creating heavy shade on watercourses. With rising temperatures due to climate change, our rivers need to be cooled. However, extensive shade from trees can also affect biodiversity of the understorey and limit daylight to water courses over long stretches. These problems can be particularly pronounced in the first rotation of forest planting across the country, and further afield where sites are heavily drained and planted in large blocks down to the edge of watercourses.
Kielder Water and Forest Park forms part of the largest man-made forest in Northern Europe. Each year the Forestry Commission harvests around half a million cubic metres of timber with the wood being used for house building, creating pallets, fencing, chipboard and pulp as well as wood for fuel. There are around 200 people employed both directly and indirectly in timber harvesting and so the forest plays a vital role in the economy of the north east of England.
Kielder Forest is managed sustainably and is a valuable home and sanctuary for many species of flora and fauna. In 2016 however, it was clear that logging in the forest was also having an environmental impact on water quality at the point of felling and initial transportation through the site, additionally, habitat for freshwater pearl mussels and invertebrates was being smothered by excessive sediment released through the forestry process. Tyne Rivers Trust came on board to identify possible solutions to reduce pollution and protect native species within the water.
We worked closely with the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency to further improve the ecological quality of the watercourses than run through Kielder Forest. The project involved detailed study of catchments that are not reaching good ecological status under the EU’s Water Framework Directive. Walkover surveys as well as chemical and biological monitoring, utilising partner expertise as appropriate have brought up issues that the Forestry Commission is currently addressing, such as:
- Plant broadleaves closer to the burn to improve ecology of stream
- Block old drains rather than treating them as water courses
- Look at fencing off agricultural sections of burns and crossing points
- Create settling ponds to capture sediment erosion
Throughout the project we met with the Forestry Commission to coordinate our recommendations for three priority water bodies and any quick fix issues in the rest of Kielder. Partnership working played a key role in this project, working with tenant farmers on-site to discuss fencing and river crossings to help ease pollution in the water. We also experimented with leaky dams to slow the flow of the water, reducing its erosive force and allowing sediment to settle out on the flood plain. A tried and tested natural flood management technique, leaky dams are essentially a series of logs criss-crossing a watercourse to mimic naturally fallen trees, whichhelps to slow the movement of water through the area.
Looking back at lessons learned from this particular project, we continue to champion the use of low profile machines when working on any ecologically sensitive area. Our Haltwhistle Burn project for example used horses to assist us with logging and the transportation of materials. More recently at Acomb we employed low-profile machinery that does not require the construction of forest tracks and used the brash from the top of felled trunks to create traction and further reduce churning the ground up.
