Evenlode Catchment Partnership

Catchment partnership vision

Working collaboratively and achieving projects and initiatives across this catchment which are overcoming causes of failure of the River Evenlode to achieve good ecological status and securing wider benefits for local communities and wider society. The partnership is working across the following themes:

• biodiversity, habitat and landscape
• water quality management and advocacy
• natural flood management and flood resilience
• education, access and recreation
• data and evidence.

Related websites

Find out more about the activities and ambitions of this catchment partnership and how you can get involved to help improve the water environment in the catchment.

• Evenlode Catchment Partnership webpage
• Catchment Management Plans on CaBA website

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Successes include:

• 5 year innovative natural flood management (NFM) project has created 37,000 cubic metres of temporary water storage by constructing field corner bunds along the Littlestock Brook. We have further ‘slowed the flow’ with 14.4 hectares of riparian tree planting, land management changes and constructing ponds and swales trapping nutrients and sediments from the land. This has reduced the severity of flooding for 12 properties in Milton-under-Wychwood, and achieving benefits for water quality, carbon, biodiversity and recreation
• citizen science water quality monitoring, sampling nitrogen and phosphorus along the Evenlode and around sewage treatment works
• 3 PhD students and 2 MSc/BSc students collecting and analysing NFM project data
• completing five river restoration projects improving water quality and biodiversity, 25 projects from the Thames Water Smarter Catchments initiative looking at water quality on farms
• ECP knowledge exchange events for sharing learning, examples: Farm Ed and regenerative agriculture, Smarter Water catchments, Stage zero river restoration, CaBA integrated catchment delivery, NFM demonstrations, monitoring.

Partnership development plans

Securing sufficient resourcing to fund the catchment hosting and project development role. Positive discussions with Thames Water under their Smarter Water Catchment project will inject funding 2021-25, but is not a long term solution. Expanding areas of interest including more educating, improving communication within the partnership and public. Encouraging regenerative agriculture, local sustainability and working on climate change.