Restoring habitats along the rivers Yealm & Erme
The Yealm & Erme Species Survival Project (YESS) is a community partnership project bringing together Yealm Estuary to Moor (YEM), Wild About the Erme River (WATER), Devon Wildlife Trust and ParkLife South West CIC. This long-term nature recovery initiative is focused on restoring habitats along the rivers Yealm and Erme to improve water quality in both catchments, tackle the impacts of climate change, and boost local biodiversity.
ParkLife has been key at coordinating local volunteering, involving the community in a wide range of enhancement activities, including tree and hedge planting, wetland restoration, wildflower meadow creation, natural flood management, and invasive species control.
Since 2023, YESS has:
- Supported over 25 non-farming landowners to improve their land
- Planted over 1km of new hedgerow
- Planted more than 1,200 native trees
- Improved 10 acres of land for wildflower meadows
- Realigned more than 200m of stream