Auction to Improve Groundwater Quality
The Tweed Forum, along with partners, are pleased to announce From Fell to Wells - an online auction encouraging (and paying) farmers to implement measures, that will reduce nitrate leaching to groundwater and protect our drinking water supplies.
This is a small pilot project designed to trial the auction process as much as the measures.
The auction runs from Monday 2nd March
to midnight on Sunday 15th March 2020
You can bid for funding for 2 main conservation measures:
- Establishing & managing Over Winter Cover Crops. (limited to 50ha)
- Reducing the amount of nitrogen applied to Winter Wheat crops. (limited to 50ha)
We invite farmers to trial this innovative new online auction tool for delivering land management measures.
The Tweed Forum, in partnership with the Environment Agency, Northumbrian Water, Natural England, Newcastle University and Sylva Foundation, are pleased to announce this new auction tool for farmers and landowners, who manage land within the north Northumberland Fell Sandstone drinking water aquifer catchment. Additional benefits from implementing these measures will include: improving soil structure, reducing soil erosion, increasing carbon capture, improving wildlife habitat and reducing weed bank risk.
The Fell to Wells Auction is a simple online tool, on which you can bid for funding to deliver a targeted number of conservation measures on your land. These measures have been chosen to help reduce nitrate leaching to groundwater and will reduce runoff to surface waters.
The online auction allows you to select fields on your land where you may wish to implement the measures and will allow you to bid an amount you can provide them for. The most competitive bids will receive funding from the Tweed Forum, once the measures have been agreed and put in place.
The auction boundary
A Safeguard Zone is a non-statutory area designated to highlight areas requiring additional interventions to improve water quality.
The Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water have designated this area a Safeguard Zone to protect the public drinking water supplies from nitrate which has leached into the groundwater. The designation of a Safeguard Zone commits the Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water to work together, and with others, to reduce nitrate concentrations in groundwater.
All bids are welcome, but bids falling within the Safeguard Zone will be prioritised for funding.
