The Wye Agri Forestry project delivered a range of versatile agroforestry tree planting, with the added benefit of biodiversity enhancements: preventing nutrients from reaching the river Wye and its tributaries, cooling water, improving soils, sequestering carbon and increasing the resilience of farms to climate change. These projects included a variety of different tree planting arrangements, all of which enhance the farming system they have been introduced to.
By engaging with the farming community and linking the land to the wider catchment, run off, diffuse pollution, sedimentation and nutrient enrichment will decrease. The project’s tree planting will result in improved soils which contributes to slow the flow across floodplains and flow pathways across the landscape, benefitting water infiltration and storage. The hydrological modelling software Scalgo was used to identify and prioritise tree planting on flow lines with associated Natural Flood Management (NFM) and low flow mitigation benefits. Other projects are situated on or adjacent to the floodplain and will contribute to a rich habitat mosaic.
Overall engagement was positive with many of the farmers involved wishing to establish more agroforestry on their farms in the future and several more farms in the pipeline. One farm hosted a volunteer day which was very successful with volunteers helping to establish alleys of native broadleaf trees across pasture in a dairy setting. The same farm hosted an event for farmers which included speakers Dr. Lindsay Whistance who spoke about the benefits of trees on livestock health, and Steve Pickup from the Willow Bank who discussed the many uses of willow in a productive farming system. The Wye and Usk Foundation spoke briefly on types of agroforestry and associated environmental benefits. In the afternoon Wicton farm spoke about their system and then took attendees on a walk around their agroforestry fields where positive discussion continued. The event was held in collaboration with the Wye Valley National Landscape. More than half of attendees were farmers and some of these, including two dairy farmers, are now actively planning to establish their own agroforestry systems
The specific project deliverables were to establish 1000 trees over 10ha across 5 farms. The project was able to surpass this with approximately 1523 trees established over 26.1 ha on 6 holdings. Each project was either adjacent to watercourses, on a floodplain or on identified flow lines with some projects fulfilling two of these specifications.
- 13 ha of habitat enhanced adjacent to watercourses
- 11.6 ha of planting on flow lines for natural flood management
- 12 ha of floodplain enhanced
