Britain’s endangered lowland rivers

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/12/britain-endangered-lowland-rivers

Version 0 of 1.

Nick Davies (The old man and the river, 8 October) raises many pertinent questions with regard to pollution of the Sussex Ouse, but similar problems affect many lowland rivers. He is right that we face huge financial issues in attempting (unsuccessfully) to comply with the worthy but unpopular EU water framework directive. Not least is the gross underfunding and understaffing of the Environment Agency.

One point of clarification: rainfall in the area is not declining but is increasing in intensity, ie more rainfall falling on fewer days, so he is correct to highlight waste and overuse of water by consumers as a cause of low flow and increased pollution in rivers.

One issue that he does not mention is that pollution of the rivers is partly a result of sedimentation – this particularly affects the sea trout as they require gravel beds for breeding. The sediment appears to be coming from arable fields.

Meanwhile, in the Belgian province of Flanders, the government has imposed no-till or conservation tillage as mandatory for almost all crops – a far cry from the mild voluntary regime in which British farmers operate – and a useful approach to reducing soil erosion.Dr John BoardmanEnvironmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

• Reading Nick Davies’ article made me cry. With anger. The slow and stealthy degradation of our environment, and the pressures put upon those who are trying to manage it for all of us, is becoming an ever invisible backdrop against the petty bunfights of the politicians that dominate the news.

This government’s Victorian ambitions appear to be increasingly divorced from what is happening in the real natural world (Labour’s weren’t much better), although in the 19th century we had much more nature to ruin, and were less able to ruin it for good.

As an ecologist I applaud the Guardian’s leadership on climate change. However, I’d argue that many more of us relate to the quality of our rivers and natural spaces. Reading how Jim Smith, the river bailiff, appears to have no place in the world of today makes me weep; we continue lose the knowledge and love of people like him at our collective peril. Mathew FrithLondon