Nature Recovery from Source to Sea

Nature recovery is a joint endeavour, focused on restoring and protecting rivers, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, and coastlines. There have already been significant successes, such as the return of salmon to the River Don after 200 years. Long-term trends also show encouraging signs, with the diversity of river macroinvertebrates steadily improving.

We consistently monitor the environment and its ecosystems to assess ecological health and environmental quality. This data allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of management actions, such as legislative changes, enhanced environmental standards, and targeted restoration efforts. These measures help mitigate the impacts of ongoing environmental pressures like wastewater pollution, agricultural runoff, dredging, climate change, water abstraction, and emerging chemical threats.

Working closely with communities and stakeholders, we use this information to protect and restore habitats and species. By understanding the natural processes that shape rivers, floodplains, beaches, and estuaries, we aim to ensure the resilience and recovery of these vital ecosystems.

(External link)		Read our Fisheries Annual Report(External link) for 2023 to 2024, which details how fishing licence income has been spent to improve fishing and fisheries throughout England.
(External link)		The RiverWiki(External link) is funded by the Environment Agency and supported by the River Restoration Centre. It is an interactive source of information on river restoration, estuary restoration, coastal restoration and nature-based solution schemes from around Europe.
		In partnership with others, we are working to restore estuarine and coastal habitats. Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe) is an ambitious habitat restoration initiative which aims to address baseline shift and reverse centuries of decline of our priority estuarine and coastal habitats.
(External link)		Watch a video(External link) about a collaborative project between land owner, Wild Trout Trust and the Environment Agency. Restoring the connection between a section of the River Witham and its historic flood plain.
Working with the community
(External link)		How do you connect with water in your local environment, and what needs to be changed in the future to benefit people and wildlife? We, and our partners, recently held the first Citizens’ Juries in England on the water environment to discuss this important question.(External link)
(External link)		Invasive non-native species are one of the top 5 drivers of biodiversity loss globally. We work with communities, local action groups and catchment partnerships to raise awareness of good biosecurity(External link) and understand how invasive non-native species (INNS) affect their local environment.
(External link)		What can you do? Remember to Check Clean Dry(External link) and help stop the spread of invasive plants and animals in our waters.(GB non-native species secretariat)
Climate
		Chalk streams are one of the rarest freshwater habitats on Earth, and England is home to approximately 85% of them. Find out about the work we do in partnership with others.
(External link)		In addition to their role in carbon sequestration, trees have a vital role to play(External link) in improving the quality and quantity of water in our rivers, helping people and wildlife adapt to climate change, and supporting nature recovery. Funding to do this through the Government’s England Woodland Creation Offer.
(External link)		Keeping Rivers Cool(External link) was a four year (2012-2016) Environment Agency-led climate change adaptation project, which focused on using trees to keep rivers cool. This approach was aimed to address the pressures of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.
Data
(External link)		Explore and download(External link) information about the water environment in your area by accessing our Catchment Data Explorer for England.
(External link)		Search, filter and download our fish and ecology open data. By using the data explorer's filters, you can focus on the spatial area and timeframe that you are interested in, and then download the desired data set(External link).

Thank you for visiting our new water hub. This is a pilot service. We acknowledge not everything is covered here yet, this is a new offering which will grow over the coming months.