CSI Case Studies: Chardstock Eco Group WHO?
WHY?
We are Chardstock Eco Group. Chardstock is a small, rural community in the very east of East Devon.
All that said, why do we do it? Because it’s fun, it’s exhilarating, it’s about great community relationships, working together, learning and challenge. It’s so much better than vegging out on a sunbed in Benidorm. We live in a special place, and we believe we can make a difference.
WHERE? The Kit Brook is a very special little river. Just six miles long, she rises in the Blackdown Hills, flowing mostly through a protected landscape and rural Westcountry countryside before joining the River Axe at a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and SSSI. She is a flashy river, rising quickly during storm events, which means flooding. She’s also a national spawning river for seatrout, although numbers have drastically diminished. In winter 2023, a two foot long seatrout was washed out of the river during a storm and died stranded on a ford bridge much to the astonishment of locals who had no idea there are fish in the river of that size.
WHAT? We are developing a catchment action plan, co-created by the ‘people of the place’. Our river, the Kit Brook, is a tributary of the River Axe. The River Axe Catchment is in special measures because it has fallen into a very poor condition. The main problems are nutrient and sediment loads from diffuse agricultural pollution.