The advice and financial contributions from Woods4Water can then be used towards:

• Woodland and tree planting
• Protective fencing (and alternative water supply if required)
• Coppicing bankside trees
• Ground preparation (scrub clearance and treatment)
• Rural sustainable drainage systems (eg. sediment ponds/silt traps) so that large scale timber extraction and other works do not cause problems

Research and development demonstrates that woodland planting is cost beneficial and can form an important pollution and flood reduction measure if targeted appropriately.

A North Devon Farmer provided the following comment on the project: 

"​We live on a 19 acre smallholding in North Devon.  For some time we have been wondering how to use a steep parcel of land that leads down to a stream.  The stream is bordered by neglected trees which have been coppiced at some time in the past.  We had been thinking about planting trees on the steep land and trying to revive the woods.

One day a flyer was delivered which described the Woods for Water scheme.  It looked interesting but we thought ours would be too small a project.  However, we contacted Sophia Craddock at Woods for Water and within a few weeks they came and looked at the land.  They identified several areas they felt were worth pursuing, tree planting to take up excess water, changes to the flow in the stream to encourage flooding along the stream and reducing the flow to the river after extreme weather, fencing along the stream to prevent pollution from animals and gradually managing the woodland, reintroducing coppicing and promoting wildlife.

Sophia put together a plan and helped us apply for the necessary grants.  It all went very smoothly, and we are looking forward to getting started on the woods in Autumn followed by planting 700 trees later in the year.  This will be a community exercise with friends and neighbours helping, fuelled by our home-made cider." (North Devon Landowner, 2019).

The Woods4Water project aims to improve water quality and reduce downstream flood risk to local communities. Woods4Water is being run in North Devon, East Devon and North Cornwall. We are working in partnership with the Blackdown Hills AONB and with funding from the Environment Agency's Water and Environment Grant (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas). Contact Sophia Craddock for more information.