ADA Environment Day 2025

ADA hosted its third annual Environment Day at Park Farm in Thorney, near Peterborough on Wednesday 05 February. It was great to see the venue packed to capacity and the audience so fully engaged on a diverse range of environmental topics related to the lowland aquatic environment associated with the work of IDBs and other partners.

An overarching theme emerged throughout the day’s discussions around how the existing network of lowland drainage channels could be enhanced as multifunctional assets delivering more capacity: for nature, for water distribution, for agriculture, and for flood risk management.

Natural England’s Deputy Director for Agriculture, Peter Craven, gave the opening address setting out aspirations for achieving ‘A resilient water future for The Fens’, through collaboration and innovation.

Peter explored how, whilst the Fens are on the frontline as a critical agricultural hub facing the impacts from climate change, there are emerging opportunities to sustain both farming and the environment. For instance: by creating a mosaic of different land uses through the Government’s recently launched Land Use Framework consultation, through finding the right drivers for change within the Environmental Land Management scheme options, and under Landscape Recovery, where IDBs, farmers and conservation organisations are already actively engaged across lowlands such as the Somerset Level and Ouse Washes.

Peter highlighted interesting examples from oversees too, looking at extensive water storage on New Zealand’s South Island that had been built and operated by 20 collaborating farmers, and the incentives provided by the Dutch government and water boards to create thousands of kilometres of ‘nature friendly banks’ within the drainage channels of the Dutch polders, providing more water storage capacity and habitat. An innovation It would be good to see such innovation replicated in England through environmental land management (ELM) scheme options.

It is clear that the supply and management of water is critical to nature recovery and to achieve net zero across our peaty soils. Peter concluded by recognising that IDBs are key partners for Natural England to work with, offering a huge reach and engagement with land managers that can broker, facilitate, and deliver water management solutions on the ground.

Following Peter, Ian Moodie provided an update on the progress being made by IDBs to deliver the Lowland Peat Small Infrastructure Pilots (LAPSIP) that will install infrastructure to better retain water safely and reduce our carbon emission from these nationally significant carbon stores. You can read more about the latest information from LAPSIP in the Spring 2025 ADA Gazette.

Dr John Redhead from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology UKCEH presented went on to present on behalf of team that recently published the Fens Climate Change Risk Assessment. He enthusiastically characterised The Fens as is certainly a fascinatingly complex landscape, with a somewhat unique set of challenges posed by climate change, it was really good to be able to discussing those both in terms of direct pressures such as drought and flooding, but also the more indirect in terms of biodiversity loss, habitats and species changes, and considerations for future agricultural production.

Jon Graham, an expert in aquatic botany in the UK, followed, highlighting the rich diversity of aquatic flora hiding within many of the Fens drainage ditches, and the often-positive impacts created by periodic channel maintenance by IDBs. ADA looks forward to the publication of “A Fenland Flora” that he and Owen Mountford are currently working on.

Nicholas Watts MBE, a Fenland farmer and member of Welland & Deepings IDB, presented his personal experiences of both the environmental enhancements that have been made over recent decades to manmade lowland watercourses in Deeping Fen, and also the further effort needed in order to retain more water safely within lowland drainage systems and manage the banks of our lowland watercourses to give nature an edge.

Malc Smith from the Waterlife Recovery Trust then spoke of the ongoing battle to eradicate a significant invasive species predator, the American mink. He said that something that looked optimistic at best only a few years ago, could now be achievable with the right level of sustained support. The fact that no mink had been trapped in Norfolk and only one in Suffolk, suggests that the team’s methods are proving effective. Malc thanked the farmers and IDBs that had been involved in the project from the outset.

Paul George, the Water Management Alliance’s Norfolk Partnership Projects Engineer, used his presentation to highlight the work undertaken to date by Norfolk Rivers IDB with partners on the River Narr to restore one of England’s few lowland chalk rivers. There, they created the right conditions for the river to thrive for nature and not increase the risk from flooding for those downstream.

Pete Dowling (Kent River Stour IDB) and Ben Morris (Beaver Trust) closed the event with insights into beavers living in the River Stour catchment in eastern Kent. A thought-provoking discussion ensued about the impacts of beaver to infrastructure especially in lowland landscapes, but also the positives that such a landscape transforming species can bring in the right locations with the right management and support for land managers. Everyone appreciated the balanced perspective that they presented around the benefits and concerns arising from our co-existence with beavers, and the need for best practice and effective management strategies.

We are most grateful to all of our speakers, our sponsor Xylem Water Solutions, exhibiting Associate Members, and of course the attendees for their contributions to a very successful event. We are very much looking forward to returning to Park Farm, Thorney for the ADA Environment Day 2026 on Wednesday 04 February 2026.

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