Trent Headwaters Natural Heritage

What is natural heritage

Natural heritage refers to all living organisms and the interactions between them that make up an ecosystem. It also includes the changes that humans have made because people have been changing the landscape for millennia. Our interactions with nature and our management of the land have uniquely shaped the natural habitats that remain.

Why is it important?

Biodiversity refers to the number of species and the number of individuals within each species that are present. The greater the variety of species the greater the stability of the ecosystem and the better it will function for all life.

The benefits that arise from the natural process of a healthy and biodiverse habitat are called ecosystem services. These include factors such as water quality, air quality, soil health, flood risk management and carbon sequestration, where carbon is removed from the atmosphere.

You can find out more about the Natural Capital and Ecosystem services of the Trent Valley by exploring our Storymap here.

What are we doing?

We aim to help restore the biodiversity and natural processes of the headwaters of the River Trent. The headwaters include the main river and all its tributaries that flow through Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Biddulph. We can do this through restoring the natural river processes, such as the shape of the river channel and banks, how it flows, and its water quality. We can also restore or enhance the associated habitats, including those within the floodplain.

What are the headwaters of a watercourse and why are they important?

The headwaters of a river are where the water first rises, known as its source. The water of the River Trent rises near Biddulph Moor in Staffordshire.

Management of a river’s headwaters and associated habitats has a significant impact upon biodiversity as well as ecosystem services, such as flood risk management. This also affects the watercourse further downstream.  The headwaters form the foundation of a river system.

One of the distinguishing features of headwaters is the lower volume of water, which can make the watercourse more vulnerable to pollution as it is less diluted. It also means any changes in the flow of water have a greater impact, particularly on temperature and certain species that are sensitive to small changes. The flow of the water can be altered by land management practices such as water drainage or storage and also by climate change.

Audit of the Natural Heritage

The initial 18-month feasibility phase of the Trent Headwaters project has involved a thorough assessment of the natural environment within the project area, working with partner organisations and local people who have a wealth of local knowledge and expertise, and bringing this together to determine the priorities and challenges for the area.

This audit of our natural heritage has identified some key opportunities and priorities which have led to the identification of a range of potential projects that can contribute to the restoration of the headwaters of the River Trent, whether that be exciting opportunities for citizen science or the creation of new nature reserves.

A Natural Heritage Audit report has now been produced as a result of this process. This comes in two parts: a riparian report that focusses on watercourses, and a terrestrial report that focusses on land. The project ideas contained within these two reports will be assessed alongside information gathered from our audit of the cultural heritage and our in depth community engagement and consultation. The best ideas will be taken forward to develop as projects to be delivered by our partnership, and we will be seeking support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Project area

If we want our projects to impact the River Trent headwaters then they need to be located within the correct catchment. A catchment is the area in which all flowing water converges into one particular watercourse.

This map shows the proposed project boundary (red dashed line). It is based on the catchments for the brooks that flow into the River Trent. Water that falls outside of this boundary either does not flow into the River Trent at all or it flows into the river outside of what we would consider to be the headwaters. The total area is approximately 170km².