By Bethany Rossiter Following the planting of 300 native trees at Penrose Stream at the end of January last year, further tree planting has taken place on the sides of the Cober Valley, near Helston. Over two days (Thursday 14th and Thursday 21st November 2019), 531 trees were planted on the streamside edge of…
By Bethany Rossiter On a typical wet and rainy winter’s day, National Trust Conservation Volunteers teamed up with Cornwall Wildlife Trust Wild Cober volunteers on January 31st, working very hard to plant 300 trees in an area of land at the bottom of a sloping field at Lower Lanner. The purpose of getting soaked to…
Supervised by Kate Smith, at CGES, Bethany Rossiter (BSc Geography at the University of Exeter) investigated the correlation between the increase in tree cover area in the Cober valley, and a decrease in the size of peak flow levels in the river Cober over time. This aim was investigated through looking at the growth of the Cober valley…
The River Cober has flooded the town of Helston, Cornwall, for centuries having social, economic and ecological consequences. Ella Rosser’s Masters (Camborne School of Mines) dissertation explored the role of the upper catchment as a contribution to flooding in the lower catchment. Sub-basins in the watershed were mapped using LiDAR data to delineate drainage areas that…
Natural flood management is about slowing and storing floodwater. The aim is to reduce the downstream flood peak height. One way to slow the flow is to build ‘leaky damns’. These are woody debris which create pools and riffles. Along with flood risk benefits they are also great habitats for fish and aquatic insects. On…
In December, Justin Whitehouse (National Trust) was interviewed by BBC Radio Cornwall about our recent efforts to restore natural flooding to the Willow Carr, woodland area, below Helston. The Willow Carr project will improve habitat for the benefit of local plant species and animals such as the otter. One element of the project involved laying…
Can your soil cope with rainfall? Book your place on the Soil Awareness Day – 25th Feb, near Helston
Helston periodically experiences flooding, caused by high amounts of surface runoff from the increasingly urbanized catchment flowing into a small and modified channel. Beatrix Webb (Masters student at Camborne School of Mines) spent 2015 investigating whether the geophysical technique of electrical resistivity can be used as a low cost method to improve the accuracy of flood prediction. The technique…
Huge congratulations to Cornwall Wildlife Trust for winning ‘Best example of Environmental Growth’ along with Westcountry Rivers Trust for our collaborative ‘Upstream Thinking’ project funded by South West Water. Shortlisted applicants spent the evening at the Headland Hotel in Newquay and were treated to an inspiring talk from environmentalist Jonathon Porritt before the awards were…
At the heart of Loe Pool Forum’s (LPF) approach to addressing water environment risks is the idea of Integrated Catchment Management (ICM); “a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability…
Loe Pool Forum 