115 - Thames Valley : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Mixed agriculture
• Available water
• Fertility of soils
• Rivers and gravel beds

State – Predominantly low grade agricultural land supporting a mixture of arable and grazing regimes, the latter producing sheep and some dairy and beef cattle.

Many historic orchards now derelict and redundant.

Fruits and vegetables are grown on the gravel terraces, and the area is a historic supplier to London.

The Thames not only supplies fish for local consumption but is also vital for sea-fish stocks.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Agriculture is generally in decline and virtually expelled from the area within the M25, due to pressures of development and recreation. The value of land makes maintaining existing levels of agricultural activity a challenge.

Livestock numbers have fallen sharply and much grazing land is now turned to horses resulting in a reduction of 38 percent in other livestock numbers between 2000 and 2009.

In contrast to other land uses, the growing of hardy nursery stock has increased by 23 percent.

The Thames traditionally provided fish, notable eels, though the number of most species fell to a level which could only support local markets. The gravel beds of the upper tideway are an important nursery ground for several species of North Sea fish notably flounder.

Opportunities – Growing interest in locally-grown produce presents opportunities for farmers to explore new outlets.

Derelict orchards can be restored for the benefit of biodiversity, genetic diversity, landscape and for growing heritage varieties for select markets such as the Colne Valley Food initiative.

Support the many measures that are underway to restore rivers and improve water quality, including measures to improve fish passage to increase fish stocks.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Regulating water quality
• Sense of history
• Genetic diversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Woodland

State – Woodland is predominantly broadleaved (12 percent of the NCA), with approximately 1,000 ha of coniferous woodland (1 percent of the NCA).

Woodland is mainly concentrated to the north of the area or as strands of wet woodland along the Thames.

Windsor Forest represents a large surviving segment of the once more heavily wooded southern clay plains.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Measures to increase plantation for timber needs to be balanced against loss of habitat, productive agricultural land and landscape character. The potential may therefore be limited.

Timber from broadleaf woodland may be under-utilised. Reinstatement of traditional woodland management may release small volumes of hardwoods.

The areas of long-standing ancient semi- natural woodland within the area are important for biodiversity, carbon storage and soil quality and structure.

Deadwood provides important habitat, particularly for invertebrates and fungi which are important in this area.

Opportunities – Opportunities for increased timber production are limited, though there may be scope for some new plantations.

The growing popularity of woodfuel in the area means that this is more likely to be the focus for woodland management in the near future and a return to more traditional management techniques.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Biodiversity Sense of place
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Reservoirs
• Rivers
• Chilterns chalk aquifer

State – Most of the area’s water supply comes from the Thames.

Overall, the area is under considerable pressure for water supply with only the River Lodden classed as having water available for abstraction.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Most of London’s fresh water is supplied from the Thames Valley. The area is already under pressure for water and this is likely to worsen with effects of climate change and predicted increased demand.

Population is likely to increase with significant new development planned for the area and recent years have already seen drought measures introduced.

Opportunities – Measures to find additional storage for flood waters within the Thames Valley may present opportunities for increasing water provision, by for example restoring and extending floodplains. Considerable investment in measures to improve rivers and enhance exhausted gravel workings to provide additional water storage to meet increasing demand and counteract effects of climate change. Many of these will also produce opportunities for biodiversity and recreation.

There is a need to promote water conservation measures in new developments to support existing water resources and help manage demand.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Water availability
• Regulating water flow
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
• Orchards
• Parkland
• Heathland

State – Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew World Heritage Site falls within the NCA.

There are many derelict historic orchards containing some local varieties.

There is much historic parkland, ancient woodland and some heathland.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The area was once a major fruit supplier of the London markets and many historic varieties of fruit, particularly apples and including the Cox’s Orange Pippin, were developed in this area.

Historic parkland has been preserved as ‘islands’ within an essentially urban context so certain preserved species may offer genetic resources. For example the oldest living vine at Hampton Court, numerous rare species in Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and descendants of Henry VIII’s original herd of fallow deer.

Kew houses the world’s largest and most diverse botanical collections.

Opportunities – Preservation and restoration of surviving orchards provide opportunities for revival of historic varieties of fruit for genetic diversity and local markets.

Preservation of ancient trees in historic parklands and ancient woodland provides a primary source of arboricultural genetic material.

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew aim to deliver science-based conservation, using plant-based solutions to address global issues such as climate change.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Genetic diversity
• Timber provision
• Biodiversity
• Food provision

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Broadleaf woodland
• Short rotation coppice

State – The existing woodland cover (13 percent of the NCA) offers potential for timber as biomass.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Much existing woodland is under-managed or unmanaged. There are numerous initiatives being explored locally within the NCA to increase potential for biomass, particularly woodfuel.

The potential yield for miscanthus is predominantly high throughout, excluding the Maidenhead area, while that for short rotation coppice is predominantly medium (Opportunities and optimum sitings for energy crops, 2007).

Opportunities – Current local initiatives within the NCA offer opportunities to create and extend existing woodlands and improve management to produce timber as a local source of biomass.

Opportunities for the creation of short rotation coppice in wetter, less fertile areas where it compliments existing biodiversity assets and helps regulate water flow and quality, but does not damage buried archaeological features or obscure heritage assets.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Biodiversity
• Recreation
• Sense of place
• Timber provision
• Regulating water quality
• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Heathland
• Wet and ancient semi-natural woodland
• Fens
• Water meadows
• Peaty soils and soils with high levels of organic matter

State – Some of the loamy and clayey floodplain soils with naturally high groundwater (7 percent) are peaty at depth or include small areas of peaty soils, while the naturally wet very acid sandy and loamy soils (2 percent) are mostly organic topsoils which are a store of carbon.

The remaining soil types are mineral soils.

97 percent of London’s natural reedbeds have been lost.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Mineral soils can be low in organic matter, sometimes where under continuous arable cultivation.

Wetlands and areas of permanent pasture and woodland contribute to climate regulation through storage of carbon dioxide and increased levels of organic matter in soils. Recent conservation efforts have begun to reverse the decline in the area of reed beds.

Fertiliser inputs into arable production.

Opportunities – Flood management plans can result in restoration of large amounts of floodplain, creating and extending wet woodland, water meadow and fens.

Carbon sequestration can be increased by increasing organic matter inputs and by reducing the frequency / area of cultivation.

The restoration of the area’s heathland also provides opportunities. Heathland on Wimbledon Common SAC is managed under a countryside stewardship agreement so opportunities exist to improve and extend this important habitat elsewhere within the NCA.

Considerable opportunities exist within the floodplain of the Thames within this area to create further, extensive areas of reed bed making a considerable contribution to carbon storage, water quality and regulation of water flow.

Encourage the creation of woodland as part of new housing and transport infrastructure development.

Encourage reduced fertiliser inputs on cultivated soils by ensuring Government guidelines (Nitrate Vulnerable Zone regulations) are followed by farmers and land managers.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Climate regulation
• Regulating water flow
• Biodiversity
• Regulating water quality
• Recreation
• Sense of place

No information available.

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Reservoirs
• Water meadows and flood plain grazing

State – For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Pressure from abstraction for the large local population, industries and waste from sewage treatment works, plus the fact that almost all water bodies are heavily modified for navigation give rise to poor water quality and biological status.

48 percent of the NCA is in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) and the Colne Valley in particular is subject to agricultural run-off but also suffers from low flows due to abstraction, over-widening, interaction with the canal network and pollution incidents. The Lodden catchment also suffers from agricultural pollutants as well as sewage effluent.

Further large-scale development is also planned for this catchment so demand for water will increase while climate change will almost certainly result in additional pressure, particularly on the chalk streams and rivers feeding the area.

The importance of the area for water supply means that numerous initiatives, such as improvement to sewage treatment works affecting the Maidenhead-Sunbury catchment are underway to improve water quality across the NCA and the Environment Agency and water Companies are undertaking several monitoring projects to assess ecological priorities within the Thames catchment. Many initiatives, such as modifications at Arborfield, involve a wide range of partners including water companies, government agencies, wildlife groups and landowners.

Significant improvements are expected to be delivered from current projects by 2015 which include addressing pollution issues by working with sewage treatment works, restoring river geomorphology and improvements for fish passage.

Opportunities – Support initiatives to reduce pollutants such as improvements to water treatment systems.

Agricultural pollutants also come from adjacent NCAs so it is important to work with farmers and landowners beyond the Thames Valley itself.

Work to eradicate non-native invasive species, particularly along riverbanks and promote awareness of the importance of biosecurity, particularly in areas of heavy public usage, to prevent their spread.

Encourage woodland creation and better woodland management to reduce risks of soil erosion, particularly in the north-western area at the southern edge of the Chiltern Hills.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Water availability
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Food provision
• Sense of place
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Reservoirs and other waterbodies
• Floodplains

State – Flood regulation is a key issue throughout the Thames and Colne floodplains, with the risk of flooding affecting significant numbers of settlements. Numerous locks and weirs are used to maintain water levels.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The Thames Catchment Flood Management Plan identifies that further action needs to be taken to reduce flood risk throughout the area, with policies that include taking action with others to store water or manage run-off in locations that provide overall flood risk reduction along with environmental benefits.

Kennet Valley near Reading is recognised as a key area for water storage potential in this NCA as it is unproductive agricultural land which often floods.

Climate change will increase flood risks in this area. Because major settlements, including London, are threatened, this is likely to be a key driver for action.

Opportunities – There are opportunities to restore wetlands, water meadows and reedbeds as part of large flood- management initiatives.

The Thames Rivers Restoration Trust Action Plan (2009) aims to find areas where floodwater can be safely stored, restore natural shape and function and form corridors between SSSI and reserves for wildlife to move around.

Optimise design and implementation of future flood storage areas to create new wetland habitats, such as floodplain grazing marsh, and creating links with existing semi-natural habitats.

Manage water bodies, including ditches, to increase structural diversity which will help to retain winter floodwater for longer and provide refuges for species vulnerable to inundation events.

Encourage agricultural practices that build up organic matter and reduce the risk of soil compaction and thus improve water infiltration.

Restore and expand wetland habitats on floodplains, including wet pastures, reedbeds, traditionally graze alluvial flood meadows, to attenuate flood flows.

Find ways of assimilating new or reinforced flood defences into local landscapes with minimum visual impact and disruption to existing habitat or species movement.

Adopt strategic approaches to increasing the capacity of catchments to retain water, including addressing river management upstream to reduce impacts on landscapes downstream, notably the vulnerable floodplain of the Thames.

Allow watercourses to revert to natural, dynamic courses where possible, thus allowing the energy of the water flow to dissipate.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water flow
• Water availability
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soil

State – Less than 25 percent of the land is agricultural and, of this, the large majority is Grade 3 soil.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Although the percentage of farmed land is small, the number of catchments makes the area vulnerable to nitrate pollution from surrounding areas, with the Colne Valley being particularly susceptible to agricultural run-off.

Opportunities – Work with farmers, land managers and landowners both within the NCA and beyond to encourage best practice to reduce agricultural pollutants.

Encourage reduced fertiliser inputs on cultivated soils by ensuring Government guidelines (NVZ regulations) are followed by farmers and land managers.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Woodland
• Permanent pasture
• Hedgerows
• Loamy free draining soils

State – The freely draining loamy soils (31 percent) have enhanced risk of erosion. There is the potential for wind erosion on some coarse textured cultivated variants.

A few of the component soils of the freely draining base-rich soils (8 percent) may be susceptible to capping and slaking.

The naturally wet very acid sandy and loamy soils (2 percent) are light soils at some risk of wind erosion,

The wet loamy and/or clayey soils (covering 55 percent of the NCA) are generally at low risk of soil erosion,

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Freely draining loamy soils are at higher risk of erosion on moderately or steeply sloping land where cultivated or where bare soil is exposed, exacerbated where organic matter levels are low after repeated and continuous arable cultivation or where soils are compacted.

Where soils suffer capping or slaking there is an increased risk of soil erosion, and these soils need to be managed carefully to reduce this with careful timing of cultivations and maintenance of vegetation cover.

Wet acid sandy and loamy soils are easily eroded if heavily trafficked or after heavy rain.

Coarser textured variants of loamy soils with naturally high groundwater occurring on sloping or uneven ground are at increased risk of erosion.

Opportunities – Increase woodland where appropriate, and better woodland management to reduce risks of soil erosion, particularly in the north-western area at the southern edge of the Chiltern Hills.

Encourage best practice in the timing and direction of cultivation to reduce erosion on sloping ground.

Where possible encourage the reinstatement of cross-slope hedgerows and shelterbelts to minimise down-slope migration of soil and reduce wind erosion particularly in areas with lighter soils.

Control of invasive non native species particularly along the riverbank to reduce soil exposure and erosion of the bank.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Heathland
• Woodland
• Parks and gardens
• Hedgerows
• Orchards
• Gardens

State – Sources of nectar for pollinating insects are provided by the remnants of lowland heathland (68 ha) found on higher sandy soils in the north, as well as areas of unimproved grassland found as part of wetland complexes or in wood pastures and commons, and in the hedgerow network. Historic parkland and domestic gardens also provide nectar sources.

Heathland on Wimbledon Common SAC is managed under a countryside stewardship agreement.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The area was once a major fruit-growing region, supplying much of the fruit for London markets. This has declined and, of the orchards that survive, many are derelict. However, remaining orchards provide reserves for pollinating insects.

Existing heathland is rare in the NCA itself but provides vital links between sites and the area is adjacent to Thames Basin Heaths NCA.

Opportunities – Degraded orchards can be restored where practical.

Opportunities exist to use Wimbledon Common as an exemplar to improve and extend heathland within the NCA, particularly on the sandy soils on higher ground to the north around the South Bucks Heaths and Parkland area.

Work with, local authorities and parishes to create multi-functional green spaces incorporating sympathetic management for pollination including appropriate management of road verges into cutting regimes, adding to the network of nectar sources close to pollinated food crops.

Increase the area of semi-natural habitats, with particular emphasis on unimproved flower-rich grasslands (lowland meadow) and floodplain grazing marsh.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Food production
• Sense of history
• Sense of place
• Genetic diversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Agricultural field margins
• Species-rich hedgerows
• Woodland
• Small-scale mixed farming
• Historic parkland and wood pasture

State – Agriculture accounts for no more than a quarter of the NCA, being virtually expelled from the area within the M25. The surviving farmed landscape is fragmented and hedgerows are often neglected.

Other land use includes golf courses, playing fields and pony paddocks.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Development and transport networks ensure that such agriculture that survives is relatively low- scale but fragmented.

Opportunities – Opportunities exist to re-link the fragmented landscape by restoring hedgerows and creating corridors using field margins, road verges, rivers and railway lines to allow predator species to move freely.

Maintain and expand the area of semi-natural habitats, throughout the NCA to provide a range of niches to support pest regulating species including invertebrates, birds and mammals.

Mechanisms such as agri-environment schemes, encourage the use of field margins, beetle banks and headlands in arable land, to encourage pest regulating species in close proximity to food crops requiring pollination.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Food production
• Biodiversity
• Pollination

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Historic buildings set in parkland
• Famous views
• River Thames
• Ancient veteran trees
• Views of Chilterns AONB
• Waterbodies

State – The natural beauty and wealth of the area around the Thames has resulted in a landscape that has inspired people for centuries.

A landscape crossed by major arterial routes including the M4, M40, M25, M3 and Great Western Mainline railway with associated development and infrastructure as well as Heathrow Airport but containing 58 registered parks and gardens covering nearly 7,000 ha of river meadows, woodland to the north, reservoirs, wetlands and rivers, internationally recognised historic buildings and views of the Chilterns in the west.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The area has attracted poets, artists, writers and thinkers and the landscape, particularly views of the Thames from various vantage points, has been immortalised in the work of greats such as J.M.W. Turner, Sir Walter Scott and Shakespeare. Despite the encroachment of urban development almost everywhere, there are still places where open landscape can be experienced.

Though there are still beautiful areas, this landscape is now severely fragmented.

Opportunities – The area is heavily used by both residents and visitors. Opportunities exist to protect, restore and sustainably manage historic landscapes including those of international importance and less well known parkland/wood- pasture sites such as Haines Hill Park, accommodating high visitor numbers while protecting character and enhancing biodiversity.

The importance of tourism to the area ensures that landscape is always a consideration and has resulted in continuing initiatives to restore historic features encourage awareness and facilitate access. These include “London’s Arcadia”, a £3.3 million HLF-funded project started in 2004 to enhance public spaces, link historic sites and improve river quality and biodiversity along the Thames between Teddington and Kew.

The Thames Landscape Strategy was launched in 1994 with a 100 year plan to -“conserve, enhance and promote for the future, one of the world’s great urban landscapes.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of place
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Sense of history
• Climate regulation
• Regulating water quality
• Sense of inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Historic buildings set in parkland
• Famous views
• River Thames
• Ancient veteran trees
• Towns and settlement
• More recent historic elements – model farms, aggregate extraction, airport

State – The area is steeped in history and sites include Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace and Eton College

5,009 listed buildings, over 40 of them within the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew World Heritage Site.

Historic links to London because of the Thames and subsequent transport routes. Important supplier of fresh produce (especially fruit) to London markets until 19th century.

Major towns on main routes out of London, particularly the River Thames (Windsor, Reading, Staines) but also on main roads (Gerrard’s Cross, Maidenhead). Particular density of fine buildings surrounding sites with strong royal associations such as Windsor, Richmond and Hampton.

Places of recreation and retreat for Londoners including medieval hunting parties and 18th century sightseers.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – A sense of history is provided by landscapes familiar through their depiction in art and literature, sites associated with Internationally famous historic events, such as the signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede and large houses of historical and architectural interest set within ornamental parkland. There are also timber-framed farm buildings in the western clay vale farmland and Victorian model farms. The towns themselves are overwhelmingly historic, including the suburbs, as are the lines of many of the routeways, those linking places within the NCA and those directed towards London.

Development has been relentless, especially during the 20th century due to proximity of London and good transport links, particularly associated with new light industries around Bracknell and Wokingham. This is ongoing. The need to maintain Heathrow as a major international airport is widely recognised.

The area benefits hugely from its historical assets in terms of tourism and associated heritage industries

Opportunities – Although heritage is generally valued in an NCA which is under increasing pressure from development, there are opportunities to address particular areas of concern such as preserving 6 conservation areas currently “at risk” in the area north of the M40 around Gerrard’s Cross. Individual sites currently at risk, such as Reading Abbey may benefit by being incorporated into new development as areas of greenspace or to add heritage value and sense of place.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of history
• Sense of inspiration
• Sense of place
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Parkland
• Waterbodies and rivers

State – The NCA has less than 1 percent of its area classified as undisturbed according to CPRE data, with 43 percent of the area classed as urban and the rest as disturbed land.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – In an area dominated by development and crossed by major transport routes, perceptions of tranquillity within the NCA are particularly important. Large areas of parkland and woodland, as well as the water bodies such as reservoirs and stretches of canal and along the Thames offer some relief from light and noise pollution from roads and industry, though noise from aircraft using Heathrow is experienced throughout the NCA.

Opportunities – Protect and preserve existing areas of relative tranquillity.

Incorporate measures into new development that integrates green and open space to enhance and extend the network of existing undisturbed and tranquil places.

Realise opportunities to introduce greenspace, and particularly tree planting, into existing developments to buffer and minimise the effects of noise and light pollution.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Tranquillity
• Recreation
• Sense of place
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Parkland
• Commons
• National Trail and Cycleway
• Lakes and reservoirs
• Historic houses
• Village greens

State – Recreation is supported by over 1,000 km of rights of way, including the Thames Path National Trail, 3 NNRs and national cycleways. The historic parklands, commons, woodlands and waterbodies, including reservoirs, canal towpaths and the Thames itself are also important assets, many being publicly accessible.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Visitors from all over the world travel to this NCA to enjoy attractions such as Hampton Court, Windsor and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

The non-tidal Thames is a prime recreation resource. The rivers, canal and other waterbodies provide the focus for numerous pursuits such as boating, bird-watching and angling, representing valuable amenities within the heavily urbanised context.

Opportunities – Initiatives such as the Thames Landscape Strategy Riverside Management Plan incorporate measures to encourage visitors such as improved access and cycle routes while also enhancing the quality of experience by clearing invasive non-native species, litter and planting hedges and trees to aid biodiversity.

Measures to improve water quality and flood measures include opportunities for recreational activities.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Recreation
• Sense of history
• Sense of place
• Biodiversity
• Tranquillity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Broadleaved woodland
• Wet woodland
• Wet meadows
• Heathland
• Dry acid grassland
• Ancient woodland
• Rivers
• Reservoirs
• Canals
• Parkland and wood pasture
• Commons

State – There are over 5,500 ha of BAP priority habitat covering around 6 percent of the NCA. This includes over 2,500 ha of woodland and around 2,000 ha of wetland habitat plus around 70 ha of lowland heathland. Over 800 ha of water bodies within the area are internationally designated as SPA and Ramsar for their importance to wildfowl. The NCA also contains 4 SACs (Windsor Forest and Great Park, Burnham Beeches, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common) covering over 3,000 ha and Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew World Heritage Site.

The gravel beds of the upper tideway are an important nursery ground for several species of North Sea fish notably flounder.

A small part of the buffer Zone for Thames Basin Heaths SPA falls within the NCA.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Despite its urban character, this NCA is important for biodiversity with Windsor Great Park being one of the most important sites in Britain for invertebrates and fungi. The water bodies in the area support large assemblages of and a range of wildfowl. The meadows and pastures of the river valleys are important for wading birds supporting breeding populations of lapwing, snipe, curlew and redshank. Large numbers also over-winter on the flood plain, particularly lapwing and golden plover

The area’s water bodies carry over 1 percent of British wintering populations of tufted duck, pochard, goosander and numbers of shoveler are internationally significant

Though heathland area is small, it provides vital links between larger areas in adjacent NCAs, particularly Thames Basin Heaths.

Juvenile eel populations in the River Thames have fallen by 98 percent in the last five years (ZSL).

Opportunities – Measures to improve water quality and improve flood management will also benefit biodiversity with the creation of new wetlands and wetland habitats and restored rivers forming corridors for wildlife between sites

Some heathland in the area is already managed under a countryside stewardship agreement so opportunities exist to improve and extend this important habitat within the NCA

The creation of green and blue infrastructure associated with new development can bring benefits for biodiversity.

Measures to ease fish passage, such as elver ladders, will increase the population in the freshwater Thames upstream to the benefit of eels and other aquatic species.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil quality
• Sense of place
• Pollination

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• 3 Geological SSSI
• 4 Local Geological Sites

State – The alluvial terraces alongside the Thames provide significant gravel yields and have been extensively excavated.

There are important geological exposures, including those of the Reading Beds, the Upper Chalk and London Clay, plus the only known British example of a late Santonian-early Campanian chalk phosphorite deposit at South Lodge Pit. The sediments are an important resource for palaeontological study.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Former mineral extraction sites have been landscaped and resulted in the creation of internationally important water bodies.

Much carbon was stored when the chalk deposits were formed.

The geological SSSI provide important access to geodiversity, enabling interpretation, understanding and continued research.

Exposure of these features also makes a positive contribution towards sense of place and sense of history. Accessible fossil exposures are particularly good for instilling a sense of history in young children.

Opportunities – Manage former extraction sites for their range of mutually beneficial interests including geodiversity, biodiversity, industrial heritage and educational purposes.

Work to improve the condition of designated sites.

Engage communities and property owners in encouraging use of local building materials.

Develop restorative management of Local Geological Sites offering opportunities for volunteering and community engagement.

Maintain views of geological features and exposures and where appropriate, improve access to cuttings, quarries and other exposures of geological features to promote understanding and enjoyment.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Water availability
• Sense of place
• Regulating water flow
• Tranquillity
• Recreation
• Climate regulation
• Sense of history