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Scrape at Black Bourn Valley nature reserve

Scrape at Black Bourn Valley nature reserve.

LANDSCAPE RECOVERY

Wilder Rivers

Rewilding our rivers is essential to create healthy landscapes for wildlife and people.


The UK has some of the worst river pollution and water quality in Europe, but we have a strategy to clean up Suffolk's rivers and restore the county's natural river habitats.

Our Wilder Rivers Strategy guides all our works on rivers habitats and river wildlife in Suffolk - as is in-line with our championing goal to restore 30% of Suffolk's land and sea for wildlife by 2030. We cannot do this alone, which is why we're working with farmers, landowners, and communities across the county to support their efforts for cleaner, wilder rivers.
 

Download our Wilder Rivers Strategy

Wilder Rivers: Our Vision

By 2030, we'd like to see...

Suffolk's rivers in functioning naturally with diverse habitats and with enough clean water to meet the needs of wildlife and people.

Where there is space, rivers are connected to their floodplain and have wild margins, linking habitats across the landscape. Decision makers, local industry, landowners, communities, and individuals all value naturally functioning rivers and floodplains, and act to protect them.

Wilder Rivers: Our Goals

To recover nature in our rivers by 2030, we will...

  • Focus on creating and delivering large and ambitious river, riparian and floodplain habitat restoration projects.
     
  • Enable action for rivers at scale through advice and training.
     
  • Advocate for positive change for rivers and river wildlife.
     
  • Deliver high quality work at scale by focusing resource on larger scale projects with greater impact.
     
  • Complete a county-wide water vole survey.

Advice for river restoration

Different river species need a variety of microhabitats within a river to thrive. Some species will prefer the sheltered waters on the inside of a river bend, while others will benefit from faster-flowing sections. Plant material in the river channel provides cracks and crevices for river invertebrates to hide in, which in turn provide food for fish and other animals. In the past humans have taken away this brilliant diversity through intensive management or by straightening rivers and putting them into reinforced channels.

If you would like further advice, or would like to arrange an advisory visit to your site, you can get in touch with our Wilder Landscapes team: wilder.landscapes@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Our Wilder Rivers work is made possible thanks to the support of Anglian Water, Environment Agency, and Essex & Suffolk Water.