Below is the response from Natural England, following Gillian's enquiries to have the River Ems designated as a SSSI (Sites of Special Scientific Interest).
Although the below initial response is disappointing, work is ongoing to put in place protections - as well as, continued work to reduce abstraction at the river by Portsmouth Water under licence from the Environment Agency.
Dear Gillian
Thank you for your interest in River Ems, it is great to see the enthusiasm for this chalk stream. The chalk streams of England are a habitat that are of particular value for wildlife and a number of them are already Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Natural England has reviewed the river SSSIs series. The South Downs have a number of chalk rivers and streams SSSIs. However, other chalk catchments were considered of greater need for additional SSSIs status consideration, in order to get a better geographical spread in the SSSI series and where there were fewer other protection measures (ie no national parks or catchment work).
In general river catchments are better protected when looked at from the source to the sea. The catchment for the River Ems sits in the South Downs National Park and most of the landowners and managers are in Stewardship schemes, undertaking wildlife enhancing activities that will protect the groundwater that feeds the springs for the River Ems. NE Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve sits in the groundwater catchment for the Ems and we don’t apply any fertilisers to that land , we have a tiny abstraction to provide water for the cattle that graze the chalk grassland. Natural England work through the Catchment Sensitive Farming programme and our partnership with Portsmouth Water to engage with all the larger landowners in the catchments for the Ems, Lavant (grouped together as the Arun & Western Streams catchments).
For local communities of Westbourne and Emsworth they can continue to protect wildlife by recording wildlife found in the catchment and submitting to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre. Communities can work with Sussex Wildlife Trust and there has been some excellent work with the Arun and Rother Rivers Trust to enhance wildlife.
We have only spoken on the phone regarding our work around Chichester Harbour and your ongoing support to bring stakeholders together to find solutions has been really beneficial over the recent months. Sue and I would welcome the opportunity to showcase some of our work with farms in the area or arrange a tour of Kingley Vale NNR. Do let me know if this would be of interest.
All the best
James Seymour
Area Manager Sussex & Kent
Natural England
