About the Project

Dartmoor Headwaters is a partnership between Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Environment Agency. The pilot phase of this project began in 2018 and during that time the project worked with its partners Devon County Council, Natural England, Highways England, West Country Rivers Trust and Woodland Trust, as well as landowners and commoners across Dartmoor. The pilot concluded on 31 March 2021.

Further funding has been secured to continue Natural Flood Management work into the next phase of the partnership, between 2021 and 2027. We will be taking the learning from the pilot and using these techniques Dartmoor-wide, as well as building upon the work done so far in the trial catchments Dean Burn, Mardle, Collybrook, Blackbrook and the Hanger Down area of the Erme catchment.

The objectives of the project are to work in collaboration with landowners and commoners to address these issues, using local labour to carry out the work wherever possible. This may include:

• Addressing poor soil condition
• Reconnecting the river with its floodplain
• Peatland restoration
• Tree planting
• Leaky dams
• New hedge banks to break flows
• Wetland creation
• River restoration and buffering
• Water storage areas

View the photo gallery for a snapshot of some of the work carried out by the project to date.

The following short video clip highlights how one leaky willow faggot dam can help to slow down water heading downstream towards the river. Multiply the effect of numerous dams and other interventions within a catchment and a significant difference can be made to the timing and volume of flows reaching the main river.