THE Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has welcomed the launch of new chalk stream restoration strategy.

The Catchment Based Approach (CaBa) Chalk Stream Restoration Group launched its first strategy in 2021, calling for chalk streams in England to be given enhanced environmental status.

The plan was built around factors of ecological health including water quantity and water and habitat quality.

Hampshire is considered a key area with the River Test, Itchen and Meon all being filtered through chalk and therefore nurturing a thriving ecosystem.

The proposal featured more than 30 action recommendations to Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the water companies, NGOs and stakeholders, to rescue chalk streams and restore them to a natural state.

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Following the release of the plan, the director of nature recovery at Hampshire Wildlife Trust, Martin De Retuerto said: “We welcome the launch of the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy. Hampshire has some of the most globally renowned chalk streams and some of the most biodiverse rivers in Europe and yet, despite their protections, we are witnessing acute pressures from pollution and water abstraction.

“This year's drought is a sign that climate change is going to compound these pressures further. Regulation safeguards by the government have failed and now we are at a tipping point for these unique river systems.

"The restoration strategy is an important step forward and proposes essential recommendations."

The clear-watered streams are a valuable habitat for Atlantic salmon, sea trout, grayling and lamprey, otters, water voles, kingfishers and for rare invertebrates such as the winterbourne stonefly and plants like stream water crowfoot.

The Missing Salmon Alliance, a group of leading salmon conservation organisations, is currently working to reverse the decline in wild Atlantic salmon in rivers across the UK such as the River Test.

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The urgency needed to improve chalk stream conditions was highlighted by the Environment Agency on November 25.

The report concluded that the temperature threshold for salmonoid eggs to survive is likely to exceed more than 85 per cent of sites by 2080. Meanwhile, adult brown trout are also under threat from high summer temperatures with all sites exceeding the species’ upper critical temperature range of 19.5°C by 2080.

The Angling Trust’s head of campaigns, Stuart Singleton-White, said: “This is only the first year, so we weren’t expecting miracles. What this report shows is both good progress in places and no progress in others.

"The political turmoil of the past year has prevented Defra from making the progress needed. With Minister Pow now returning to her role in Defra, we want to see more progress in the year to come.”

For more on the plan go to catchmentbasedapproach.org/learn/chalk-stream-strategy-3/.