WET WET WET
tion, and when people are sploshing around in their kitchens under three feet of water they want immediate action,’ says Spray. ‘It’s diffi - cult for politicians to say to people “give us fi ve years and we’ll be able to give you the data that shows this works”, but unfortunately that’s what we need to do. ‘That’s why the Eddleston Project [on 70
square kilometres of the River Tweed] is so important, because it’s already up-and-running and will show what happens downstream when you plant hills, gullies and fl oodplains, re-meander the river, restore wetlands and peatlands, dredge the silted stretches of the river, block ditches, remove the embankments that channel the river when it’s in fl ood, and plant trees alongside rivers so that the tons of good topsoil that are currently eroded by the river stay put. Whilst it is too early for defi nitive results, the anecdotal evidence has been really encouraging, with locals saying that areas which would normally fl ood have remained dry because the land is able to hold the water like a sponge and release it slowly.’ Luke Comins, who heads up the highly-
respected Tweed Forum, which is responsible for the work at Eddleston, sees the effects of centuries of land drainage and habitat loss on a daily basis. Landowners and communities have, quite understandably over time, wanted to shift water off their land as quickly as possi- ble using embankments, river straightening and drainage ditches. However, if everyone does this, the fl ood wave is amplifi ed so that by the time it hits the communities downstream the fl ood is much bigger than it would other- wise be, which is why down-river towns such as Dumfries, Borders towns such as Selkirk, and Elgin are particularly at risk. Money spent on increasing storage and slowing down fl ow in the headwaters where the rainfall is at its most intense has the potential to save a great deal of money and grief in the urban areas further down the river. No-one is arguing that urban fl ood preven-
Above: Only the treetops remain visible above the fl ood waters. Right: Householders protect their property using sandbags.
tion schemes, such as that on the Water of Leith following the fl ooding of 500 properties in 2000, are not needed, but such remedies do nothing to solve the root cause. Government policy actually exacerbates the problem, classifying large urban areas with a population of over 125,000 as the most urgent priority when it comes to spend- ing money, while ‘very remote rural areas’ – in other words those areas where the headwaters are likely to be located – are offi cially the lowest priority for fl ood prevention expenditure. ‘The late Lord Home – a keen angler who
worried about the landscape’s increasing effi - ciency when it comes to shedding water, thus reducing the length of spate and in turn curtail-
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 81
FIELDFACTS
JIM SINCLAIR, CROOKSTON FARM, GALASHIELS I farm sheep and cows with my son Graeme at Crookston, which is about ten miles north east of Galashiels. We have 1,500 sheep and 100 suckler cows on 2,000 acres at our farm, which sits between the Gala Water and the Armer Water. Even though the farm goes up to 1,500ft and the bottom sits at 700ft, the valley on the farm is prone to fl ooding, which in turn causes severe problems for the towns of Stow and Galashiels further down the valley. Over the years, we’ve suffered a horrendous amount of lambing loss due to fl ooding, much of it caused by winter snow melt running off the hill. Our landlord Lord Borthwick put us in touch with the Tweed Forum after they had done some work with him, and with their help we’ve managed to reduce surface water run-off rates by creating water retention ponds and planting fi fty acres of woodland. As well as greatly reducing our mortality rates for lambs, which benefi ts our livestock management and also the farm environment, the changes have helped lessen the chances of Stow and Galashiels fl ooding. By pursuing a co-ordinated approach, it has been a win-win situation for everybody.
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