Chalk streams https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2021/11/30/restoring-englands-great-barrier-reef
By Charles Rangeley- Wilson, Chair of the Chalk Stream Restoration Group.
On 15 October 2021, the Chalk Streams Restoration Group marked a major milestone on the journey to restore England’s chalk streams. The group was formed in 2020 to bring together many partners responsible for or interested in the future of these precious habitats. The resulting Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy, which we launched on 15 October, sets us on course to breathe life back into a part of our environment that so desperately needs it.
Why do we need to restore chalk streams – what makes them so special? Chalk streams are an exceptional type of spring-fed river distinct to England and parts of France and Denmark. Although chalk exists in other parts of the world, nowhere else do we find these clear-watered rivers. In England, they are distributed across an arc of chalk that runs from Dorset to Yorkshire. Chalk streams – in their natural condition – are home to a profusion of life. When rain falls on chalk hills most of it soaks down into the body of the rock and there undergoes a kind of alchemy, emerging from springs as cool, alkaline, mineral-rich water, providing the perfect properties to create a richly diverse eco-system. Botanically, chalk streams are the most biodiverse of all English rivers. For invertebrates, fish, birds and mammals, they offer a vast range of habitat niches. They are our equivalent of the Great Barrier Reef, or the Okavango Delta: a truly special natural heritage and a responsibility.
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