Improving water quality

This project came out of the Pollardine Farm Test & Trial when the participating farmers/landowners were asked to design a project for their holdings that delivered public goods. Two of the workshop groups facilitated by Lizzie Hulton-Harrop chose to focus on water quality, so it is a farmer-led, grassroots project.

From the scoping workshops, the farmers/landowners chose to use water sensors developed by the company FreeUp to monitor water quality on their holdings and identified where they wanted to place them. They will be used in both streams and ponds on 8 land holdings across three waterbody sub-catchments: Pontesford Brook, East Onny, Cound Brook.

The sensors monitor the turbidity, colour and temperature of the water. Combinations of these readings can indicate various states of river/water quality and potential causes given the context of their deployment.

The farmers/landowners will meet regularly during the project to discuss the data captured by the water sensors, where water quality issues might be coming from, and how they can change their land management practices to improve water quality.

The project includes training in Holistic Management delivered by 3LM: Land and Livestock Management for Life, which will take place in October 2023.