What happens when you set a river free? | BBC News
Virtually all the UK’s rivers have been physically altered in one way or another – straightened, dammed, dredged or restrained by barriers in some way along their course.
Which is why the National Trust decided to do a radical experiment, to see if it is possible to the ecological equivalent of a complete reboot.
They filled a river in west Somerset in and let it take its own course through the landscape.
Our climate editor, Justin Rowlatt, has been finding out how the project worked out.
Producer: Harriet Bradshaw
Shoot/Edit: Gwyndaf Hughes
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31 comments
Or like just reintroduce beavers and save the time and effort
Probably THE most useful flood defence ever. Designed by nature.
Get some Beaver in it! I'm quite partial to a bit of Beaver.
Fancy a government agency not knowing what their intervention will be. Rivers change like the geology that forms their course.
Wetlands are sponges. There seems to be a direct relation between the number of wetlands in an area, and the severity of flooding that area receives.
Such a good project, a very happy thing!
Fantastic.
Wonderful, good-news story, thank you 😊
Cool!
The wyre forest has recently had beavers introduced it, it'll be interesting to see how they fare
We need more of this and less political sh*t
Great vid
I love this kind of thinking and action. How was the landowner brought on board given the uncertainty?
It's so nice to not have a flooding region impacting millions of people.
You didn’t know what was gonna happen did you? That VERY government and national trust….i could told you. It seems rather….OBVIOUS? no? Just me? Couldn’t have been. Pay me I’ll do a better job. Least I’ll have answers.
Fiddling while Rome burns….this stuff doesn't mean a jot once the earths atmosphere cooks off.
Imagine when the bees, insects, birds and animals return when we take down wind turbines and if we can ever remove the 100ton concrete foundations which have been dug into the land to stop the wind turbines from falling over. Imagine the whales, dolphins and marine life which will return where we have built wind turbines in the sea. Somehow, we used to protect the environment from industrialization, but the new industrialization of the environment is no longer protected from the wind and solar industry. Greenpeace, Friends or the earth and other organizations have stopped protecting the planet from the wind/solar industries. Why? National Trust, is it doing anything to stop wind/solar from industrializing the environment?
Funny thing – water restauration respond rapidly, while land takes much more time. Greetings from Denmark where we saved our salmon from extinction from only a handful of individuals
Well done to everyone involved! This seems to have been amazing for the local environment!
Jo is a dafty
This is amazing! Thank you for reporting on this trailblazing project! ❤🧡💛💚💙💜
The only issue is so much infrastructure is built around rivers if they are allowed to block and move will only cause huge flooding and damage
How about…
A local tax when you sell a property if you have a concreted parking space for a front garden?
You were careful to say it reduces downstream flooding. But what about upstream? Does it increase flooding there, since the water does not flow away as fast?
So glad this worked out!
Beavers will love this.
This actually makes alot of sense, I have never thought about it but I guess increasing the water area would indeed sprout new life to previously dried area
A good idea unless you happen to actually need land to grow things on
So they fill in a stretch of river with dirt, and are surprised that it turns into a marshy swamp full of insects. Great work.
When is she going to turn the land under her home back to it's natural state. Ahhhh, won't put her money where her mouth is. THAT artificially changed land with stay changed.
1080p 😂