Would you like to be involved in the Natural Flood Management project in Ottery St Mary?

Would you like to be involved in the Natural Flood Management project in Ottery St Mary?

This is a project that is working through the small catchment just outside Ottery St Mary, starting at the East Hill Strips woodland and then working with landowners down towards the town, to put in a series of natural flood management measures to help reduce surface water movement and increase biodiversity.

Although the flooding and water run-off problems have persisted for many years, the project is relatively new in the sense that the Natural Flood Management Officer (Laura Fairs) only started in post in February. So far, Laura has been meeting with landowners and working through what interventions and works they might be able to carry out. The project runs until February 2021 and is funded through an Environment Agency Community grant.

Laura would like to develop a small team of volunteers for two main purposes.
Firstly, will be to help with the installation of NFM measures – these will predominantly be woody debris dams in the goyles and ditches on some of the farms in the catchment. This work will start in autumn of this year.
Secondly, Laura is also looking for very local people from Ottery or surrounding area to develop a monitoring or wardening system. What form this will take is still under development but it will most likely be checking on the woody dams we install to make sure they have settled in and are working properly during and after high rainfall events, as well as some water levels monitoring during high rainfall events. Laura hopes to install some stage (or gauge) boards in some of the goyles and would like volunteers to check and record water levels at these boards. These roles would be best done by someone local who can pop out after heavy rain without having to take too much time out of their day. (and by someone who doesn’t mind the rain! 😊)

If you think you’d like to be involved in either the practical work or the monitoring, or both, please contact Laura on the details below.

Laura is meeting with anyone who might be keen to be involved, for an informal chat, cuppa and opportunity to meet before any practical tasks are pencilled in, on Tuesday 27th August at 6pm at ‘Ottery Station’ at Mill Street, in Ottery St Mary. The postcode is EX11 1AH. If you are available, please come along.


Email Laura on: lfairs@devonwildlifetrust.org
Telephone Laura on: 01392 260838 (Office) or 07538 682415 (Mobile)

For more information please visit https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/flood-prevention-scheme-to-protect-more-than-60-properties-...