It was a bit of a toss-up whether to go out for a walk this morning or not. I’d been up since 5am and got quite a lot of work done – I’d written 700 words on Stanwick Lakes for a book that is being compiled about the Nene Valley so I felt pretty good. Although the only problem was that the article had to be 500 words.
At just before 8am I looked out of the window and it wasn’t raining – but it looked like rain and the forecast said rain. I’m a bit of a wimp with rain – I’m not one of those hearty types who squelches through the puddles with a smile on his face. I like dry!
But I thought I’d give it a go anyway and I arrived at Stanwick Lakes at around sunrise even though it was perfectly light. Well, I say perfectly light – it was a very dark sky, full of rain that hadn’t yet decided to fall on my head. I listened to Chris Smith doing a good job talking about the Somerset Levels on the Today programme and then headed out into the gloom.
Stanwick Lakes were flooded – well, I guess I mean the usually dry bits between the lakes were flooded. There was a lot of water and the rain was now gently adding to it. This was going to be a disaster of a bird walk! Harrumph!
Nice weather for ducks, perhaps, although the Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Pochard and Tufted Duck didn’t look as though they were beaming happiness. They looked a bit down in the mouth too – or was it just me?
The Song Thrushes didn’t seem to know that it was raining – they were singing away. And a Cetti’s Warbler exploded with song from a reedbed.
There was a lot of water around – I’ve seen more flooding at Stanwick than today’s but not much more and not often. Still, if it weren’t spreading over the paths I use, and covering the fields by the River Nene then it would probably be in someone’s living room or office. After all, this is a river valley and a floodplain. You’d have to be a bit bonkers to think that no-one gets wet in a river valley when it rains a lot.
There is no way to get rid of water, only to slow down its inevitable passage to the sea or speed it up. Either way there is the same amount of water – it just sits in different places for different amounts of time depending on what we do with it.
In winter, it’s the classic nimby subject – everyone would rather the water were moved on quickly but that usually means it ends up in some one else’s back yard even sooner. I thought back to the Somerset Levels and places I know such as Muchelney (often mispronounced by BBC folk over the last week which makes me wonder how many foreign names they get wrong with great confidence and without me noticing), Burrow Mump and Westonzoyland.
I splashed on and heard a couple of Chiffchaffs – they are more obvious this winter than usual here.
A field I usually cross was flooded to a depth of a couple of feet so I had to retrace my steps (which I always find irritating) but I added Great Spotted Woodpecker to the list. Actually the list was now in the low 40s which is pretty good. I hadn’t seen anything unusual, but I had seen a fair proportion of the usual Stanwick suspects.
The huge flock of Redshanks, which has numbered between nine and 11 on most of my recent visits, was at nine today. They were feeding near the early Oystercatcher on the flooded margins of a field.
I guess this is Stanwick providing ecological services. I’m not sure if this is exactly how it does work, but I can imagine that getting the water to this point in the Nene Valley eases the pressure on Northampton and Wellingborough, and then keeping a pile of water here eases the threat to Oundle and a host of pretty villages downstream. When there’s lots of water about it has to be in someone’s back yard.
It was now raining hard and I was walking into it. There weren’t any other people around. Jogs had been abandoned or postponed or re-routed, and dogs were idling at their hearths rather than having a waddle next to their waddling owners, it seemed.
I took the route across a causeway hoping to see Great Crested Grebe and Goldeneye, and luckily for me (or shall we call it skill?), both were easily spotted near my path, which is just as well as the rain was now very heavy. The Goldeneye’s were displaying in the rain – good luck to them, I thought.
After a 2-hour walk I decided I deserved a bacon sandwich in the Stanwick Lakes Visitor Centre and a Black Earl Grey tea. My birdlist was a ‘quite impressive considering the weather conditions’ 52 species. I’m glad I made the effort.
Then it was home, to get rid of those 200 words.
Find the discussion re: how to deal with the Somerset Levels somewhat depressing. I can’t see that dredging the rivers and building levees will have any significant effect given the frequency and intensity of rainfall events that are being experienced. What really needs to be discussed is how best to exploit the ecosystem function of the Levels in the medium to long term, what agricultural exploitation is ultimately sustainable and where. And how communities can be protected. In some cases I suspect the current farm systems are untenable. But that won’t stop Opat and co throwing millions at trying to demonstrate otherwise.
You can understand the frustration of levels population,during period of dredging flooding was not really a problem but last two years it is really a disaster for them.
What really wrankles seems to be that I suppose it was Government? who found £31 million for a NNR at the mouth of river but cannot find about £5 million for dredging.
Surely all the costs associated with this flooding must be colossal,those massive pumps must cost a fortune to run 24×7 and that is only one small part of the costs.
“During period of dredging”…evidence of rainfall events during those years compared to last 2 years?
Where do you get the figure of £31M from?
How much is subsidy to farmers on the Levels? How much do the Levels earn from tourism driven by the proliferation of reserves?
How many houses have been built recently on flood plains in the area?
When will the experts who realised the future problems with flooding on the Levels come out and explain their policy to the locals?
Does anyone, except the MP for Bridgwater, think that the reed warblers are to blame?
What I found interesting was that Owen Paterson on his visit was talking about SUDS and tree planting – quite a surprise ! cynically, you could say he’s just out to avoid spending money but it is interesting that for the first time ever alternatives to pouring concrete are seriously under discussion – and if they’ve got to Owen, that is quite something. I don’t actually think trees are the answer in the levels – but equally, nor is dredging. There is simply too much water – here, farming water has to be the answer and rather than dredging & building dykes which will still leave farmers in the **** when the banks are over-topped why don’t we spend the money not in compensation but in ecosystem services for them holding the water – and for EA to manage it across the whole landscape.
“farming water has to be the answer”
It’s already being done – the current situation is no accident. It’s been the perceived solution by the EA and meddling misanthropes for years. It works up to a point – Taunton town centre didn’t quite flood in 2000 and the sluice systems further north controlled the water levels very well. Farmland did remain flooded, but not for long or to the extent of this event. The current weather would be expected to cause flooding but records show that the rainfall is not exceptional or unprecedented.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/flooding-in-the-somerset-levels-a-case-study/
What has happened is the reduction of carrying capacity in the rivers by up to 40% and the effect of land use changes in the catchments. I have suggested to Ian Liddell-Grainger that Defra should be asked to stump up extent and timeline data for the take-up of agri-environment schemes that maintain the water table so high that there is no capacity for soils to hold any surplus winter rainfall. Bearing in mind that in those parts of the catchments drained by high level carriers all the drainage is pumped – even in the absence of floods.
The flooding issues in the Levels and Moors were well managed by the IDBs and I think you will find that the 5000+ that have signed the epetition in the last few days would regard the EA and their fellow travellers as the cause of the problems, not the solution. As for Rambo – he’s just a Johnny-come-lately. The thumbsitters in office from 1997-2010 have a lot to answer for, and the destruction of wildlife on this scale by maladministration has to be one of the biggest wildlife crimes of all time in this country.
“I have suggested to Ian Liddell-Grainger that Defra should be asked to stump up extent and timeline data for the take-up of agri-environment schemes that maintain the water table so high that there is no capacity for soils to hold any surplus winter rainfall”
This should be very straightforward, all of the info should be easy to pull off from the mighty GENESIS IT system….or not. The EA should also have information on the farms that have been granted water impoundment licences, a legal requirement under the planning system for any landowner wishing to hold back water. Each application should have been subjected to a technical assessment by the EA’s flood defence and water resources bods. I would like to think that the EA retains all of this info and keeps it in an accessible form.
However, I would be surprised if land being managed with raised water levels during the spring and early summer months is a major contributor to the current flooding in the Somerset Levels.
The most common way of raising water levels on floodplain grassland sites is by installing suitable sluicing / level control structures. A key requirement of these structures is that they enable levels to be both raised and lowered according to the season. Typically the aim is to maintain a high water table which occasional areas of shallow standing water between March and early June. The usual practice is to drop the levels in Late May/Early June (a bit later for snipe and curlew) to enable late summer field work (rush control, hay making etc). During a wet autumn/winter the boards can stay down until Feb – early March.
They have all the means needed to achieve close control of water tables and have had them since the 1700s – in a Trigger’s Levelboard sense. It doesn’t work if the drainage can’t escape – much of the Levels and Moors are an enclosed basin at or below high tide level. The sea is kept out by massive sea walls and for significant distances the main rivers are banked above the level of the surrounding land. Drainage is achieved by pumping over the river embankments. If that doesn’t get done it matters not where the levelboards are set.
I’m not expecting a reply from the MP, but it would be useful to have the data – the local population want to know who is to blame, before they go round their house for a chat …
I don,t know why flooding comes as a surprise. The EA have been warning us for years. Trouble is those who think science is a waste of time are leading the country.
Perhaps we should not have destroyed bogs and drained flood meadows? Now the only place left for rainwater to go is on new housing and business estates.
Perhaps we should have stayed in Africa
Dredging just has to be a good start,it is stated by local people who surely know as much about the problem as anyone that the river now carries half the water that it did previously dure to silting up and also being not as wide where the reeds have grown in.
Liz perhaps thinks Levels have not had wet periods in the past,well I can assure her there have been times with just as heavy rainfall in the past.
£31 million was quoted to O P on his visit and has not to my knowledge been denied so guess it is accurate but really doesn’t matter anyway as the cost of dredging at £5 million is relatively small with a good chance of success and costing less in the long run.
The reserves are certainly not getting visitors at the moment as Greylake is flooded and visitors will not risk going as many roads are flooded.
My guess is that in the flooded areas it is the place in the country that has less new house by a big margin than anywhere in the country.Unfortunately for those poor victims they have to suffer by taking all the extra water created by all types of building works on higher ground in surrounding counties that drain into the Levels.
Anyone with no sympathy for those unfortunate people would no doubt think differently very quickly if their property was flooded in successive years for what appears by words of experts a period of two months.
All farmers probably get subsidy so there is no point in saying about it,they get no more or less than others,totally irrelevant as whole villages are flooded,butcher,baker candlestick maker,even mobile hairdresser cannot get to clients,no subsidy for them,just much higher insurance premiums if anyone will insure them.
No no one else blames Reed Warblers(not sure he does)everyone else blames without fail no dredging and when there is flooding not bothering with pumps until the day before O P visit.
Suspicion is it has really been a deliberate policy to encourage waders into a wet area.Maybe with all these reserves in that area certain wildlife organisations have encouraged flooding,certainly Greylake has been changed from farmland to flood land.
And here am I sitting at my PC watching the rain teeming down outside.
You’re right of course Mark, there is only one place to be, no matter what the weather, and that is outside. I’ll definitely do so tomorrow………..probably.
Alf – i was planning to go for a walk in a local wood but the rain today has persuaded me to wait for at least a while…
Alf – i was planning to go for a walk in a local wood but the rain today has persuaded me to wait for at least a while…
What I find odd is how few people even look and say “perhaps we’re ignoring climate change”
Dennis, I lived in Somerset on a flood plain for 21 years but the house was built by the mill owner and was thus raised above the annual flood level. My comments and reference to reed warblers were in response to Liddell-Grainger’s ranting at the Parliamentary committee hearing on Jan 22nd broadcast on Sunday morning where being in dire need of scapegoats he threw in Barbara Young, her salary,her successor, the RSPB and the poor old reed warblers together with the incompetent Environment Agency to ensure lots of soundbites. In essence let the hard working farmers have their way and establish a polder like landscape as in the Netherlands.
British Wildlife, excellent independent magazine, has in its latest issue an article by RSPB’s Richard Archer ‘Farewell silver meadows’, a brief resume of the recent history of the Levels which lends a perspective to this debate.
Liz,a rspb chap is never going to give a balanced view of how the levels should be.ref your tourist spend,well in all my visits to rspb reserves in the area tourists are almost as rare as hens teeth,I have just seen one in all those visits who came to buy some footage of Starlings for the opening ceremony of the OlympicsThe tourists actually come to places like the Quantocks and then visit reserves armed with bins food and flask so not much gain there for Levels residents.
Wildlife could not hardly have suffered worse than having these floods,birders are constantly saying thing like Owls and Kestrels are hardly ever seen,obvious really floods must have killed milllions of small mammals so they have starved.I bet he did not put anything like that in his”Farewell Silver Meadows”.If I looked for a unbiased view on anything the last place to find it would be from the rspb.
You seem to pour scorn on Levels farmers who make a good job of farming in difficult circumstances.They all seem to have the respect of local birders whose land the birders often go on to view the uncommon birds in that area,there also seems very very little if any persecution taking place,they have embraced the Crane Project helping the organisers in many ways.
As you state there are lots of reserves in the area cannot understand why you cannot be satisfied with that mix of farming and reserves
Dennis,
I think you are being unfair.
You should read Richard Archer’s article, as Liz says it does lend a perspective to the debate. Best to read it before you take a view on it.
I would be happy to scan a copy of it and email to it if you wish.
Ernest,if I was unfair to Richard then I am sorry but my point is really these people on the levels should not have these massive problems and for sure there is something that is not right as heavy rainfall is nothing new and I would think that almost all the places on the levels were built where flooding did not occur until recently.
Doubt that it is coincidence that dredging stopped and flooding has taken place.
Quite a lot of people seem to have little sympathy with a population that in my opinion are as good with wildlife as anywhere and certainly there are lots of bird enthusiasts in Somerset who are quite well treated by farmers on the levels.As far as I am aware the Cranes have had no problems from residents and farmers seem to have a good relationship with rspb locally.
Anyone suffering this amount of flooding is going to want it solved.
It is simply a fact of life but very unfortunate for these people that the problem comes from draining a massive area on higher land so sympathy for them should probably be expected.
@Ernest Moss “I would be surprised if land being managed with raised water levels during the spring and early summer months is a major contributor to the current flooding”
Because summer drought is also a problem on the Levels and Moors, the IDB keep the water table high by penning the drainage. In 1997 English Nature said this – “Whilst avoiding prolonged and deep flooding, our vision seeks winter and spring splash conditions on the inland Moors, providing habitat for overwintering waterfowl from north west Europe. Channels would no longer run low during the winter months but would be held higher to sustain the important populations of fish, aquatic invertebrates and plants.” This clearly posts an intention to influence winter water tables.
For the prevention of prolonged and deep flooding the means of pumping water into the high level carriers and the maintenance of their capacity is essential. When this happens everyone is happy. The payments for arable reversion are rather good (so long as they last), wildlife is abundant, the economic life of the area thrives. When it doesn’t, we have the present disaster. No wonder Michael Eavis describes the EA as “clowns”.