Sparking Chalk Streams of Lincolnshire

The opportunity 

Do you want to help restore rare and globally-important chalk streams, whilst reducing flooding in local villages and towns? 

The rolling hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds are spliced by beautiful and globally-significant chalk streams, but they need your help.

The UK holds around 80% of the world’s chalk streams, so your support is vital for these scarce habitats. They should flow with sparkling waters and be abundant with wildlife like lamprey, brown trout, water vole and otter.

But they are suffering from pollution, being blocked by siltation and decimated through man-made drainage.   

The project 

Your funds will support the experienced Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project partnership to work with land-mangers, combining innovative and interlinked river restoration measures.  

These interventions and techniques will help reconnect Calceby beck with its surrounding wetland habitats, reducing flooding risk to local villages, whilst also reducing siltation of the chalk stream. These works will also give the depleted Wolds Chalk and Spilsby Sandstone aquifers a chance to replenish, improving resilience against water scarcity in the locality. 

Your support will facilitate wider community and social benefits, such as: 

• Citizen science surveys, e.g. national river-fly surveys
• Practical volunteer days (for local communities and for your organisation)
• Educational day-visits with local schools
• Student research projects with the University of Lincoln 
• Exploration of rich archaeological and cultural heritage, such as deserted medieval villages 
• Water quality & security
• Boosting biodiversity
• Resilience against climate change 

The potential

With your support, this project will be able to include novel chalk stream restoration techniques, which will be scientifically assessed for success.

They can then be shared to bolster the restoration toolkit for these scarce habitats across other landscapes.  

Key outputs 

• Scarce chalk stream habitat will be restored and reconnected to surrounding habitats, helping to make it more resilient and biodiverse.  
• By linking up the wetland areas, the habitat will have greater water-storage abilities, minimising flooding of communities downstream and improving drought resilience.   
• Strong collaboration between partners and landowners provides a landscape-scale exemplar template for future chalk stream catchment enhancements. 
• The project will deliver on several partnership aims and objectives, including: 
  • the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Strategic Action Plan, and,
  • the Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape Management Plan. 
• The project aligns with Defra’s Environmental Improvement Plan goals for water and wildlife; together with the emerging aspirations of the National Outcomes Framework for England’s National Landscapes in terms of furthering nature recovery in a predominantly lowland farming landscape. 

Partner organisations 

Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project partnership includes:  

• Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape 
• Lincolnshire County Council  
• Environment Agency - Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Team 
• Anglian Water  
• Natural England 
• Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust 
• East Lindsey District Council 
• North Lincolnshire Council 
• North East Lincolnshire Council
• West Lindsey District Council

Interested to hear more?

Reach out to discuss supporting this project.