Water Friendly Farming partners

The Environment Agency is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by DEFRA, that works to create better places for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development. Within England it is responsible for:

• regulating major industry and waste
• treatment of contaminated land
• water quality and resources
• fisheries
• inland river, estuary and harbour navigations
• conservation and ecology
• managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.

Freshwater Habitats Trust is a national evidence-based conservation charity that works to protect life in freshwater. Freshwater Habitats Trust is building the Freshwater Network, a national network of wilder, wetter, cleaner and connected freshwater landscapes, to reverse the long decline of freshwater wildlife.

Freshwater Habitats Trust has had a key role in Water Friendly Farming since its launch in 2012. CEO Professor Jeremy Biggs and Technical Director Penny Williams and colleagues in the charity are focused primarily on monitoring the impact of measures on freshwater biodiversity.

The University of York’s Department of Environment and Geography is a leading centre for teaching and research on sustainable solutions to the world’s environmental issues.

The University of York has been a research partner within Water Friendly Farming since its launch in 2012. Professor Colin Brown and Dr Martha Villamizar Velez have established a series of catchment-scale models for the demonstration site and these are used to understand how the different measures modify water quality, downstream flood risk, and biodiversity.

Landowners in the Barky Brook, Eye Brook and Stonton Brook catchment are vital partners in the Water Friendly Farming project.

Their support is enabling us to deliver and monitor measures across the three catchments.