Many of the great philosophers of centuries past and present have championed the notion that the more in depth you begin to understand something, the more you realise you do not know. This has never been as true for anything in my life as it has been for the complex issues surrounding our rivers. I like to believe I know these issues pretty well inside out; however, it really is that complicated.

Most people I meet feel they have it figured out, their perpetrator, the one to point the finger at. The water companies. The farmers. The politicians. The invasive species. The conservationists. The ‘townies’. But to focus on any single one of these looking for answers would leave us no better off. Simply put, the current state of our rivers, in particular the Lugg and the Wye, is consequence of a suite of compounding issues that have been building over several decades. Compacted ground becomes as hard as tarmac, allowing no infiltration. Rivers without buffers choke as soil enters the water unimpeded, covering fine gravels in a nutrient rich layer of thick sediment. We all know very well just how much raw sewage enters our waters. Extraction is at an all-time high and invasives such as Himalayan balsam ravage our riverbanks. Houses upon houses are built on disconnected floodplains, removing huge areas of potential water storage and fast-tracking rains’ passage to the river. From raw sewage to soil chemistry, climate-change to deforestation, there is no single cause and there is no single solution, I am afraid.

There has long been a focus on phosphates and with levels as high as they are in many catchments, rightly so. There is no denying that the sheer volume of phosphate rich chicken manure in the catchment has reached unprecedented levels. But to focus on this without delving deeper would be to miss some of the really crucial details. I am no soil scientist, but I have met with many now and they are always keen to remind me that many soils within the Wye catchment are generally low in calcium, which makes phosphorous retention very difficult. It is not a simple case of putting nutrients on soils and they are readily available to plants, there is a complex web of life within healthy soils that requires everything in equilibrium to function its best, as seen in our ecosystems more broadly. This is not to say that by simply adjusting soils we can spread all the chicken manure we like, but it is important to understand exactly how things have got to this point if we are to find a truly sustainable solution. Spreading lime on some soils may help, particularly in the uplands. Is it a long-term solution? I do not believe so. Requiring continuous inputs to uphold a system only shows its lack of resilience – many will disagree with me here, but I think we need to be more ambitious.

So, what am I getting at? Soil health. And not just what level of this nutrient, or what pH or temperature – how alive are your soils? Over 80% of the nutrients in the river Lugg are related to rural land use. This does not mean there are farmers running around throwing manure in the river as they please, as some media would have you believe it. But it does tell a bigger story about how land management has changed and with it, how alive our soils are. Industrialisation of farming has brought about an understanding of soils being a medium in which to grow within, rather than the complex web of life ready to support plants that it truly is. Arable soils left bare for winter months starve as they exhaust what is left behind from last year’s crops, their structure falls apart without the network of roots and mycelium binding them together and heavy rains erode and send them thundering towards the closest watercourse. Heavily compacted soils in the uplands can appear sodden, only to be completely dry 10cm below the surface. Working towards healthy, organic matter rich soils throughout our river catchments is key to success in river restoration, and this will mean different things in different places. A mere 1% increase in soil organic matter can lead to a further 75,000 litres of additional water storage per acre. Within permanent pasture systems this may mean greater rest periods, increased grazing exclusion, increased herbage variety and diverse stocking. In arable systems this could mean cover crops, companion planting, reduction of inputs and wildflower margins. Restoring woodland on steep upland hills can have huge impacts upon how quickly rainwater leaves the hills, while lowland wetlands can clean and store that water, protecting valuable farmland and towns. We need to build diversity back into our rural land and with it, the diversity of soil life will follow.

More than any practical measure it requires a shift in thinking. I routinely meet farmers that are already thinking this way, proud to share how much they have increased water and carbon storage in their fields after changing grazing regimes and reducing inputs. What is coined regenerative farming is a journey and ultimately does present a large level of risk to a small farm. But it is this journey, alongside tackling all the other issues aforementioned, that will ultimately lead to the long-term health of our rivers and associated wildlife.

Next time somebody believes they have got the rivers all figured out, politely remind them, they likely don’t! This is not to say we should not hold water companies and routine polluters to account - we absolutely should. But we have much more to gain from working together than we do from vilifying any one industry – complex issues require complex solutions, and over the coming decade we will need all hands-on deck.