In past years St Andrew’s Eaton has regularly hosted successful Eco Fairs. This year they are having an Eco Weekend over Saturday and Sunday the 4th and 5th of October. On the Saturday there will be an Eco Market in the Church Hall from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm. Local Companies will have a range of stalls in the church hall selling ethically produced goods. Refreshments will be available. More details of the weekend are here.
This year there will not be the stands publicising the activities of voluntary environmental organisations, but it is hoped they will be present in future years.
In the past century or so, many of our rivers, the Yare included, were canalised and disconnected from their flood plains. Attempts are now being made in a number of places to restore rivers closer to their former character. This is seen as having a number of advantages. Letting a river return closer to its natural state can create valuable wetlands, give time for sediment to settle, and reduce flooding downstream.
If you have been walking on Marston Marsh recently you will have seen and heard the activity on Keswick Marsh on the other side of the river. Here work is being done under the direction of the Norfolk Rivers Trust, in partnership with, and with funding from, the Environmental Agency (EA), Norfolk Water Strategy Programme and Anglian Water to improve wetland habitat on the floodplain. It includes reconnecting the floodplain to the river, improving the wet ditches, and creating wetland scrapes.
The large equipment being used is rather alarming, but assurances have been given that any damage done in the course of the work will be “mitigated”. The end result can have a number of positives, such as:
reducing the risk of flooding downstream. The flood plain will be more effective in storing floodwater and releasing it slowly. This should reduce the height of flood peaks downstream;
providing a greater range of habitat. This should increase biodiversity, increase resilience to climate change and better support natural ecological processes in the water network;
increasing the floodplain’s ability to store carbon and so reduce greenhouse carbon emissions.
Ignore it!
It is encouraging to see the effort being made to promote nature in the river valley.
The University of East Anglia (UEA), like many universities has been facing serious financial restraints on their spending, and so when the UEA boardwalk needed replacing the university was unable to do this from its own funds. Recognising the importance of the boardwalk to the local community, UEA has provided instead strong staffing support to seek funds from elsewhere, including the Greater Norwich Growth Board and the National Lottery. At a meeting with the Yare Valley Society on Wednesday 28th August, ways in which bids can be carried forward with YVS, and other voluntary organisations, were explored.
No go section of Yare Valley Walk necessitates detour
The UEA team and the Yare Valley Society sends a big thank you for the generous donations and support, and UEA has issued an update on the progress made so far. If you have not already done so, there is still time to make your donation. It is pleasing to report that the amount of £1800 raised quoted in the update is already out of date. It is now well over £2000, please keep it rising. Being able to show strong community is essential if bids are to be successful.
Please donate online at www.uea.ac.uk/dare-to-do-different. Or, to discuss your gift, please get in touch with the Development, Alumni and Campaigns Office.
Nothing planned for the Yare Valley this month. The nearest volunteering site to the Valley that is available is Earlham Cemetery. There is a range of activities on a variety of sites, and so take a look through the programme here to see what might appeal to you.
FREE bus travel for ALL days this month – tickets refunded for all volunteers for any bus journeys to and from either of our meeting points on the day.
More about the Conservation Volunteers is on their website.
Please help YVS to safeguard the Valley by responding to a consultation on the likely impact of installing pylons, solar panels, and other energy developments in the Yare Valley.
Pylons on Marston Marsh?
The Background
South Norfolk District Council is consulting on a draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which deals with Landscape Susceptibility in relation to Energy Generation, Storage and Transmission as it relates to Local Character Areas* (LCAs) within its boundaries. It has drafted assessments of how susceptible the LCAs are to the development of solar photovoltaic panels, anaerobic digestion (AD) plants, battery storage facilities, overhead powerlines including 400kV lines that utilise the largest pylons (35-50m), underground cable routes, and substations. Among the LCAs assessed is LCA F1: Yare Valley Urban Fringe which is a part of South Norfolk that lies in the Yare Valley on the south side of the Norwich boundary (the river is the boundary).
The Yare Valley Society is concerned that the present draft susceptibility assessment in the consultation does not take fully into account the special circumstances of LCA F1. It is unique amongst the LCAs of South Norfolk, lying as it does in an urban fringe and forming part of the larger Yare Valley Green Infrastructure Corridor.
YVS is pressing for LCA F1 to have a special status and be included in the main body of the report under its own separate section. The YVS case for special status is here.
For a second submission to South Norfolk Council, YVS is preparing a detailed response to Appendix 3 Landscape Susceptibility Analysis of F1 (Pages 76 to 85). You might like to have a look at this and send in your comments to Planning at South Norfolk (email above).
Thank you for caring for the Valley
*Local Character Area status provides a degree of protection from inappropriate development. In the case of the Yare Valley LCA this is reflected in Policy DM 4.5 Landscape Character and River Valleys: “All development should respect, conserve and where possible, enhance the landscape character of its immediate and wider environment. Development proposals that would cause significant adverse impact on the distinctive landscape characteristics of an area will be refused. …”
Some welcome news on the UEA Boardwalk. Norwich City Council have agreed to sponsor the UEA application to the Greater Norwich Growth Board (GNGB) for a grant to replace and improve the UEA Yare Valley Boardwalk. If the UEA application to the GNGB is successful, the funding could become available from April 2026.
Part of the unsafe existing boardwalk Photo:UEA
To avoid the bird nesting season, which spans March to September, work to remove the old boardwalk and replace it with the new one will not take place until October 2026. In the meantime, when possible, the UEA grounds team will clear vegetation and cut back along the pathways to make the project easier for when it finally gets underway.
If you have not already done so there is still time to show community support for replacing the Boardwalk by donating to the UEA fund: under “Our Causes” be sure to select “Restore our Boardwalk”.
Another full programme from Mark Webster that has four opportunities for improving the ecology of the Valley. On Tuesday 5th and Monday 11th the team will be removing ragwort from the areas grazed by horses in Bowthorpe Southern Park. On the Fridays of the 22nd and 29th the team will be improving conditions for wildflower growth at the Eaton Burial Ground.
Matt Tomlinson of the Yare Valley Meadow Makers invites you to join the Meadow Makers work party on Marston Marsh to collect yellow rattle seed. This is becoming an annual event. The rattle seed will be used to promote wildflower growth on the Strawberry Field and UEA meadows.
Yellow rattle features on UEA Meadows interpretation board
Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is semi parasitic and feeds on the nutrients in the roots of adjacent grasses. In this way it suppresses the grass growth and creates more space for wildflowers to flourish.
There will be an evening session on Thursday 17th of July 7-9pm and an afternoon session on Saturday 26th of July 2-4pm.
All are welcome. Meet at MARSTON MARSH at ///found.maker.rocky (Marsh entrance near where the golf course crosses Marston Lane)
No tasks in the Yare Valley this month, but a chance to see some other beautiful hidden riversides while balsam pulling. At some locations, where facilities are limited, there will be the opportunity to try out a portable loo that is being trialled. The full programme is here.
At a well-attended Yare Valley AGM, following the business matters, Tom Everett, the UEA Landscape Manager, gave a talk explaining how the Ecology of the UEA was being managed.
Photo: Lisa Morgan
The large number of questions from the audience revealed the interest there was in what he had to say. A sign of how managing the ecology had changed, was his own career progression at UEA. From an early job on a tractor close mowing the Campus grass areas, to now overseeing, as Landscape Manger, the same areas being transformed, with the help of volunteers, to wildflower meadows. It demonstrated how the UEA management of the Campus has been evolving in line with the increasing concerns of biodiversity decline. He also made the important point that, for biodiversity to improve, some of our green space needs to be protected from human and dog intrusion. This was well illustrated by the increase in wildlife, such as of water voles, that were observed to occur after a section of duplicated riverside path was closed. The university campus is on both sides of the river, and forms a significant section of the Yare Valley Green Infrastructure Corridor. It was re-assuring to hear of the efforts being made to improve the ecology of the campus. Walking trails on campus enable you to see what is being achieved.
