The Allerton Project: Latest News
Our work at the Allerton Project and elsewhere in the Eye Brook catchment on the relationship between land management and water quality and ecology has become widely recognised. Key to this is our approach to the development of practical means of reducing the impact of farming on water quality that are compatible with the requirements of farmers. A new collaboration with the Environment Agency (EA) has enabled us to take on Kathryn Carr to work with Chris Stoate on this issue in the River Welland river basin, of which the Eye Brook is a tributary. Kathryn’s work will enable the results of our practically-grounded research to feed into regional river basin management policy. She will also combine our own experience with that of the EA and others, to develop a simple cost-effective means of assessing sedimentation, and explore the relationship between sedimentation and fish populations in the Welland.
June has also seen peak activity in terms of bird monitoring by John Szczur and Chris Stoate. This year we are mapping all breeding territories across the farm, as we have done in four previous years since 1992. This is a major undertaking, but will provide the baseline against which we can monitor changes in numbers following the development of our new shoot. We are also collating historical data from the Allerton Project for analysis of trends in bird numbers through the periods of game management and subsequent dismantling of the game management system. The results will guide our plans for future management on the farm.
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