Our achievements
Our Chess Smarter Water Catchment project is tackling the issues that face the river and its catchment through partnership working.
The Chess Smarter Water Catchment project started in 2021 with the vision of making the River Chess catchment a jewel in the heart of the Chilterns landscape. Work is well underway to make this happen, protecting landscapes, enhancing habitats and improving water quality and flow. But there is plenty more to do over the 10-year term of the project.
Explore
Tracking the Impact Expansion
In 2023, we teamed up with the Chalk Cherries and Chairs Project (CCC) to extend their successful Citizen Science Project- ‘Tracking...
Priority Ponds in the Chess Catchment
Fresh Water Habitats Trust Freshwater Habitats Trust (FHT) is a national wildlife conservation charity and their aim is to reverse...
Chess Valley Farm Cluster
In 2023-24, Harriet Bennett, our Chess Farm Cluster Engagement Advisor was busy working with 25 different farms across the catchment...
Sarratt Lynchets – Community Excavations
Location: Sarratt Lynchets The terraces you can see on the hillside in Sarratt(2) are called lynchets – the result of...
Watercress Beds River Restoration
Location: Crestyl watercress beds On the R. Chess at Sarratt Bottom, where the landowner’s family have been working the site...
What can you do to help?
There are myriad ways you can get involved, from making basic changes around the house to how you use water to creating space for nature on your land.
What have we done so far?
- Fenced 800 m section of the Little Chess to reduce poaching from cattle and increase vegetation and suitable habitat for water voles.
- Launched a suite of citizen science initiatives and training to monitor water quality; currently have ~40 members of the public engaged.
- Launched a Citizen Science Portal
- Created a baseline document called the State of the River Chess, showing where we are now and where we need to get to.
- Increased the capacity of water quality monitoring through the deployment of two new sensors, which monitor nitrate, phosphate, oxygen levels, velocity, turbidity, pH, temperature, ammonia, dissolved organic matter, and more.
- Through the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, engaged with farmers to complete surveys of agricultural land. This work has been expanded into the creation of the Chess Valley Farm Cluster
- Hosted Masters students on the Chess, who are collecting and analysing data on chalk streams.
- Completed a River Restoration project at Restore Hope Latimer, which aims to create optimum habitat for water vole population expansion.
- Started a River Restoration project at Crestyl Watercress Beds, Sarratt.
- Lobbied through partners, the government on the plight of chalk streams, and the need for additional funding.
- Identified priority habitats within the Chess Catchment.
- Expanded the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs model of Tracking the Impact into the Chess catchment, collecting survey data on birds, butterflies and plants across set locations.
- Trained volunteers in managing Invasive Non-Native Species.
What does the future hold?
Future projects include:
- Use targeted education in schools and with wider demographics to illustrate the need for water efficiency.
- Continue to develop and fund the Chess Catchment Farm Cluster to look at linking landscapes and habitats through farmer engagement.
- Prioritise projects to receive landowner grant funding within the catchment.
- Build public engagement through a broad range of opportunities within the catchment and enable community involvement through funding streams, such as the community grants.
- Build partnership/stakeholder engagement through the delivery of on-the-ground projects.
- Workshop the future of the Chess Smarter Water Catchment Project, with stakeholders.
- Develop an onward catchment plan from 2025-35.
- Develop links with research projects, such as the Flood and Research Drought Infrastructure (FDRI) and SMARTWATER.
Chilterns Chalk Streams Project
Wetland wildlife
