In urban areas, the 95 km (59 mi) long Tame and its tributaries including the Cole and the Rea introduce pockets of nature into the West Midland’s urban centers. Weaving through Walsall, West Bromwich, Birmingham, Solihull, these rivers breathe life into the concrete jungle. The River Tame, for example, passes 1.7 million people before it joins the Trent at Alrewas, upstream of Burton. While the area has been encroached by urban development, it has retained some of its biodiversity – and its rivers, acting as corridors play a vital part.
The rivers near Nuneaton and Tamworth are still tributaries of the Tame but flow through a more rural landscape; these include the Blythe, Sence, Anker and Mease.
Despite the pressures, a lot of people enjoy and treasure the rivers in this catchment. More than eighty angling clubs are getting out to fish, whilst others enjoy the rivers on canoe, foot or paddleboard. As both urban and rural human impacts have been taking their toll, we’re on a mission to revitalise these waters. In urban areas, we remove concrete straight jackets and create green spaces that wildlife and people can enjoy. Rurally, we provide advice to farmers and develop projects that create habitats and reduce the impact of nutrients, phosphate in particular.
In heavily urbanised spaces, the concrete doesn’t stop at the riverbank. Pressure from development has meant that vast sections of these urban rivers have lost many of their natural processes, with much of the catchment covered by non-porous surfaces, resulting in larger and more flashy flood risk. Nearly a third of rivers in the catchment are classed as heavily modified and none achieve good biological or chemical status, according to Environment Agency data from 2019.
In urban areas, plastic pollution, sewage and road run-off reduce water quality dramatically. While in rural areas, nutrients, including phosphate and loose soils from agriculture can also cause pollution issues.
Moreover, a large proportion of the river flow in the urbanised areas is made up of sewage treatment works discharges. By far the largest input to the Tame comes from Minworth sewage treatment works which discharges treated effluent from Birmingham into the River Tame at Water Orton.
Zooming in provides a more optimistic picture as smaller water bodies remain in good chemical and biological health. As government targets want 75% of rivers in good condition by 2027, it is high time for nature-based solutions to create restorative buffers and complement dominant grey infrastructure and in this catchment.
Despite the extent of urban landscape, there are many parks and wild spaces throughout the Tame catchment, supporting important habitats and species, such as amphibians and migratory birds. Both the Great Crested Newt and the Water Vole have had strongholds in this urban area.
The Blythe, Anker and Mease all support a more diverse array of wildlife, typical of English lowland rural river systems. The Blythe and The Mease, are both designated as SSSI’s, for their population of aquatic plants amongst others, notably Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus species).
Only found in a few rivers in the East Midlands, the Spined Loach, a fish that has been calling the East of England home for over 330 million years, this fossil period resident, is part of the reason why the Mease is designated with SSSI and Special Area of Conservation – SAC status.
Sink or swim, the Bullhead, a locally abundant, but EU-wide rare species, has decided to sink to the bottom of small stoney rivers. With no swim bladder, the fish naturally lives under small rocks and was found to only move 10 metres over a 8-month period. The fish can be found in Givilskaw Brook, a tributary of the Mease and other small streams.
The Great Crested Newt is a protected internationally important species. The amphibian is often spotted in ponds during breeding season. During the summer months, this predominantly black specimen with an orange and black spotted underbelly can be found in wetlands and grasslands.
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