The Big Give’s Green Match Fund campaign has given the Trust the opportunity to boost its work in restoring the natural health of the area’s globally rare chalk rivers. The fundraising effort will help to put the ‘wiggle’ back in to our chalk rivers, significantly helping with climate adaptation and protecting the wildlife populations that these ‘rare as rainforest’ habitats support. With every pound donated, the Green Match Fund will double it, providing twice the impact of vital funds raised by donations over a week-long period, from 22 April to 29 April, up to a total of £20,000.

There are only 260 chalk streams in the world, and Hertfordshire and Middlesex is home to 10% of this global resource. These unique river systems are so rare, and support some of our most vulnerable species, including the critically endangered Water Vole, wild Brown Trout, European Eel and Kingfisher. Fundraising to protect these unique habitats, which are our equivalent to tropical rainforests, and the species that depend on them is more vital than ever, with one in six species at risk of extinction in Great Britain.

Chalk rivers face a host of challenges posed by pollution, abstraction and modification impacting the flow, quality and physical habitat - the trinity of ecological health for a pristine chalk river. The Trust is working to address these issues and to restore the health of our rivers, including reversing the actions of our ancestors when they straightened rivers by putting the ‘wiggle’ back in to them. By bringing them back to follow their original course, rivers are reconnected to their floodplains, increasing storage capacity and slowing water flow, which reduces the risk of flooding incidents. Plus, their value to wildlife is increased with diversity of habitat, varying depths and flow, providing shelter, spawning grounds, and food sources for a wider range of species, thus halting the decline of over 109 species associated with these unique habitats.

Sarah Perry, River Catchment Coordinator at Herts and Middlesex Trust says,

“Chalk rivers are a unique natural resource that we are proud to be custodians of – priceless jewels in our local landscape. They have historically faced significant challenges from human development and today, despite our awareness of their rarity and ecological value, they face the well-documented problems of pollution, over-abstraction and the growing impacts of climate change with drought and flooding episodes becoming more frequent. These rare habitats and all the wildlife they support need our help more than ever and it’s great that this is being recognised by the Big Give Green Match Fund and every donation, no matter the size, is being doubled during the week of fundraising.

“Together with the support of our partners, we have a great track record of making a difference to the health of our local chalk rivers and helping the wildlife that relies upon them to recover so anyone taking part in this fundraising campaign can be reassured that their donations will be well spent. From removing weirs enabling wildlife free passage, to successful Water Vole reintroductions, from making our rivers wiggle once again, to re-gravelling riverbeds, and from reconnecting floodplains and backwaters, to putting deadwood into the channel to provide spawning grounds for wild Brown Trout, we have the know-how but all too often funding is a barrier to the progress we know we urgently need to make. The Big Give is a unique opportunity to give to this unique cause, with the feel-good factor of knowing that whatever you can give your donation will be doubled.  

Sarah continues: “There is further action we can take too. The sad reality is that only 15% of England’s rivers are in good overall health and none of these are in Hertfordshire. We need to see the Government commit to better protection for rivers generally, but particularly our chalk rivers, given just how rare they are on a global scale. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill represents a valuable opportunity to deliver the bespoke protections, identified by the CaBA Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy, that these rivers desperately need in an amendment to the Bill. By putting pressure on your local MP to support this you can be an instrumental force in championing our precious chalk rivers.”

The Trust has been working since 2012 on its Living Rivers Project, raising awareness of the issues chalk rivers face and delivering improvements through river restoration projects, working with local communities, landholders and catchment groups.

To find out more about the Trust’s Living Rivers Project visit hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/living-rivers and to support the Big Give Green match Fund go to https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS0000021yfNYAQ