Aquatic plants in an English chalk stream by Linda Pitkin/2020Vision
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Our chalk streams need protecting
The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the Government to create new legislation to give bespoke protections for all chalk streams.
Otter by Andy Rouse/2020VISION
England's chalk streams are one of the rarest habitats on earth. Their crystal clear waters are still home to salmon, otters, water voles and kingfishers, making them our equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest. A truly special habitat that we are so lucky to enjoy.
Yet many of our chalk stream rivers are now polluted, dirty and choked by litter and chemicals, threatening the wildlife that call them home and the people that rely on them for wellbeing. The Government must give all chalk streams new legal protections if they are going to stand a chance of recovery while we are still here to see it.
The Government says our rivers won’t be clean and in good overall health until 2063. We cannot wait 40 years.
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Kingfisher by Margaret Holland
Tell your MP to save our chalk streams
We are calling for new legal protections for all chalk streams to make polluters pay, hold water companies to account and restore England's richest chalk streams to be clean, healthy and full of life again.
We need your help to save our chalk streams
We are joining with partners all across England to campaign for action across government, water companies and councils to save our chalk streams and give them legal protection.
The Letcombe Brook running through BBOWT's Letcombe Valley nature reserve. Picture: M Bailey
Among the glorious rivers we have in our three counties are some of the country’s most beautiful chalk streams. In Oxfordshire, the Letcombe Brook and Chalgrove Brook are both chalk streams; Berkshire is home to the Pang, Kennet, Aldbourne, Dun and Lambourne, while Buckinghamshire boasts the Chess and Misbourne.
We want to empower people to take action locally to campaign for our chalk streams. Everyone can get involved by writing to your MP asking them to become a chalk stream champion. We’re calling for our MPs to stand up for chalk streams and be part of the movement pushing for protecting these unique habitats locally and nationally.Chief Executive, BBOWT
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Join us in calling on the Government to create new legal protections that will:
- Drive investment in sewage-treatment works on chalk catchments
- Prevent over-abstraction of chalk streams, especially during drought
- Give protection in the planning process to provide buffers from encroaching development and ensure water infrastructure is in place before development starts
- Direct investment into the restoration of chalk streams, for example through the Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Environmental Land Management farming schemes and Biodiversity Net Gain
- Increase funding for monitoring and enforcement by government agencies on our chalk streams.
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Do you have a chalk stream in your constituency?
Click below to send a letter to your MP asking them to back our calls. Here are the Parliamentary constituencies in our region that have chalk streams:
Oxfordshire: Wantage and Henley.
Berkshire: Newbury, Wokingham, Reading West, Maidenhead and Reading East.
Buckinghamshire: Chesham and Amersham, Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Buckingham.
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Grayling © Paul Colley
European water vole © Mark Bridger
Sewage pipes © Aquatarkus
FAQs
Why are chalk streams special?
With only around 220 existing worldwide, these cool, fresh, oxygen-rich waters provide the perfect habitat for rare British species like water vole, southern chalk stream Atlantic salmon, brown trout, southern damselfly, water crowfoot, and white-clawed crayfish.
Over 85% of the 220 chalk streams in the world are found in the South of England, truly one of the rarest habitats on the planet. They are also incredibly rich in life; home to more species of plants than any other English river and include species found nowhere else. They are England's equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest: a truly special natural heritage and our responsibility.
How are chalk streams under threat?
England's rarest habitat and richest chalk streams should be clear, and sparkling with vitality. Instead they are becoming clogged and choked by toxic chemicals, fertilisers and sewage. Drought and over consumption are draining the life out of rivers, with devastating consequences for the wildlife and people that rely on them.
Healthy rivers are vital for our water supply, our food security and our ability to withstand a changing climate. We can't allow the abuse of these vital life support systems to continue.
Do any chalk streams have protection?
Currently, only 11 out of the 220 British chalk streams have any legal protections as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These are Berkshire and Wiltshire’s Kennet, Hampshire’s Test, Somerset’s Frome, Dorset’s Bere Stream, Norfolk’s Nar, Yorkshire’s Hull headwaters and Greater London’s Crane.
Only 4 are protected as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), a higher level of protection: Berkshire’s Lambourn, Hampshire and Wiltshire‘s Avon, Hampshire’s Itchen and Norfolk’s Wensum. But while these protections are helping to keep these rivers in a better state than chalk streams that are not protected, we need stronger regulations specifically designed for our chalk streams.Â
The Government said that our rivers won't be healthy until 2063. Why?
Currently, only 16% of waters in England are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. Staggeringly, this means not one of England's chalk streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas are in an overall healthy condition. Even the 16% that are in good ecological health are not in good health overall because of the chemicals they contain.
Previous targets required by the Government to get our rivers in to good overall health by 2015 and 2021 have been missed.
The Government's 'river basin management plans' that launched in 2022 stated that the Government predicts that all of our rivers and streams won't be in good overall health until 2063. That's four decades away!