SAFAG (The South Abingdon Flood Action Group) were founded in or around 2000 to campaign to stop development on the flood plain near Tesco. Since then SAFAG produced a plan to protect the Ock Valley from future development by turning it into a nature reserve, and just this month have produced a new study on flood prevention using tree planting.
The Vale of White Horse is the catchment area of the River Ock, and after a deluge all the water can arrive at Abingdon in a torrent. The SAFAG study suggests that land management can help to reduce the peak flow of the river during extreme storms by delaying the arrival of storm water at Abingdon. Measures to achieve this can include strategic tree planting and woodland management along the river corridor. The full study can be a read here or by visiting the SAFAG Website.
It’s a method used by lots of different areas. Persistent river clearance and tree planting does help. Logical if you think about it as trees need a lot of water to survive.
We were lucky with the floods this year, hope it isn’t so dire next year. Thank you to everyone that helped.
Is there a local “Plant a Tree” group? I would gladly pay to have some trees planted – preferably native broad leaf varieties. One of my boyhood favourites by rivers was the alder.
We were distinctly unlucky at the West End Allotments last year with 4 floods! Trees would help a bit, but there is so much arable in the catchment. Also the A34 embankment doesn’t help, nor the failure to clear ditches. If this happens again we’ll have to give up or move up hill, maybe to Wildmoor!
SAFAG, and Malcolm Moor in particular, have done great work on this issue.
I’m sure tree planting can be part of the solution. the worst thing that could happen is that we end up with a few more trees.
On a point of information – I wrote the management plan for Ock Meadows Nature Reserve in 2002
David Guyoncourt