Cornwall National Landscape team awarded £4,236 of Farming in Protected Landscapes (FIPL) funding to The Grower for the Human Beaver Project, to address a long-standing water quality problem on their farm at the edge of St Agnes. A stream running through the farm feeds directly to Chapel Porth beach. It had a history of carrying agricultural soil runoff down on to the beach and out to sea. Working with Cornwall National Landscape, the Grower team set out to slow the flow, capture sediment and restore two silted-up ponds along the river.

Leaky dams and community action

The centrepiece of the project was a community engagement event that brought the local community to the farm to take part in restoration work. Volunteers began by clearing the watercourse of overgrowing blackthorn and hawthorn using hand tools funded through FiPL, before sitting down to a lunch provided by the canteen at nearby Mount Hawk. They then put the cleared material to immediate use, constructing 12 leaky dams in the river. These look like old-fashioned fences and are a simple but effective way to slow the movement of water, giving sediment time to settle out rather than being carried downstream.

Alongside the dam-building the volunteers excavated and restored two silted up historic ponds on the watercourse. As well as providing valuable standing water habitat, the ponds now act as settlement pools, capturing any soil still carried by the stream before it can reach the beach.

Results and wider benefits

Soon after the volunteers completed their work a period of heavy rain put the new leaky dams to the test. The results were clear (in more ways than one!): water that had previously run off on to the road, causing localised flooding, now follows its correct course, and arrives noticeably cleaner. The Cornwall National Landscape team expect that the reduction in soil runoff will deliver lasting water quality benefits, reducing the discharge of nutrient-rich sediment into the North Atlantic via Chapel Porth.

The project is part of a broader shift on the farm towards a more regenerative approach to land management – one focused on improving soil health and reducing the conditions that lead to surface runoff in the first place. For the local community, it also offered a rare chance to get hands-on with the land, play an active role in protecting a much-loved beach, and see directly how thoughtful farm management can make a difference.