How a farmer caused the 'worst case of riverside destruction' ecologists have seen

An ecologist says it will take 20 to 30 years for a stretch of River Lugg in Herefordshire to recover after being damaged by a local farmer.

John Price was jailed in 2023 for illegally removing tonnes of gravel from the riverbed to build a road and horse yard at his home and tearing out 71 trees.

He was ordered to pay £600,000 and to restore the damage he had done.

"It's amazing the damage that a human being can do in a very short amount of time," said ecologist Richard Fishbourne.

The River Lugg is home to six protected and endangered species, including common otter, Atlantic salmon, white clawed crayfish, brook lamprey, shad and bullhead.

It flows into the River Wye, and in 1995 it was made a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

District Judge Ian Strongman described John Price's actions as "ecological vandalism on an industrial scale" when he sent him to prison in May 2023.

The farmer admitted using bulldozers and diggers to remove gravel from a mile-long stretch of the river by his farm in 2020 and 2021.

At the trial, Natural England described the damage as the "worst case of riverside destruction" seen by the organisation.

As part of his sentence, Price was ordered to re-plant trees and restore the riverbed and banks, with the Environment Agency and Natural England overseeing his work.

We visited the site with Herefordshire ecologist Richard Fishbourne, to see how the restoration project was going.

Fishbourne is an environmental designer who helps communities to restore natural spaces and work with wildlife.

"There's no sign of life, there's nothing in the water here now," he said.

"It takes tens of years, decades, to build up this wonderful community of species and habitat and it can all be destroyed in a moment.

"It's going to take 20 or 30 years to come back to anywhere near the extent that it was."

River gravel beds are where insects and fish lay their eggs and the young grow.

We spent two days at the site but we did not see any sign of the protected species: the Atlantic salmon, the wild brown trout, and grayling.

Fishbourne said he was worried about the lack of insects in and around the water.

"There's nothing here, it's an impoverished landscape really.

"I'd expect to see fish moving, fish rising, in the old days you'd see fish topping all over the place, you'd see a lot more flies as well, none of that is here anymore."

Emma Johnson, West Midlands Deputy Director for Natural England, said the damage done by Price was a "serious environmental concern and the site and wildlife will take a long time to fully recover to a healthy state."