Diffuse pollution by agriculture

The UK Government has produced a briefing paper on the diffuse pollution of water by agriculture and has summarized measures that have the potential to reduce the effects on waterbodies by agricultural activities.  This can be found here:

 http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/POST-PN-478/diffuse-pollution-of-water-by-agriculture

In summary: ‘Surface, coastal and ground waters in England suffer from significant pollution problems: 78% of surface and groundwater bodies fail to meet the ‘good’ ecological status prescribed by the EU Water Frameworks Directive. Pollution increases water treatment costs and adversely affects wildlife. Compared to treatment, preventing water pollution at source can have a cost-benefit ratio as high as 1:65.

CABI releases rust fungus to control invasive Himalayan balsam

Himalayan Balsam (image courtesy of CABI)

Himalayan Balsam Rust fungus released

Himalayan Balsam is the bane of many a river managers life, with often the only effective treatment being hand pulling over a number of years.  Now a new agent is possibly coming to the rescue of reducing the impact of this pernicious non-native in the form of a fungus that is host specific.

On the 23 July 2014, the Himalayan balsam rust was approved for release by Defra Ministers making this the first fungal biological control agent to be released against a weed in the European Union.  The release was co-ordinated by CABI under licence from Natural England

Biggest coastal flood management scheme completed

Sunrise 8th September 2014 & the high tide enters the newly
created Steart Marshes -
image from The Environment Agency website

JPR Environmental was involved in the UK's biggest coastal realignment scheme to date - a joint project between the Environment Agency and The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Steart Marshes on the Severn Estuary.

The Marshes are important in protecting the surrounding land - this is from the Environment Agency's website:

"Rising sea levels are predicted to result in loss of inter-tidal habitat in the Severn Estuary. Steart Marshes will replace about half of this loss and reduce the flood risk for local communities. Just before 7am on Monday 8 September, high tides entered 250 hectares of low-lying land for the first time in centuries...

Malthouse wine making

There's a beautiful vine outside our offices, lovingly tended by the Arboricultural Association (our landlords) which last September, had a mass of grapes, ripe for harvest.  We decided to make some Malthouse Wine - vintage 2013.

Here's Mike cutting some grapes.  We prepared the juice by pulping the grapes through a straining bag (a clean pillow case) into a bucket.  We added sugar and used a hydrometer to check the sugar levels (all impressions were that this was going to be a low alcohol wine from the start).

The juice was left for a few days, decanted into 3 demijohns and then we waited.

If you search 'making wine from grapes' online one result says, "It combines the process of fermentation with the creativity of the winemaker.  The fermentation process starts when yeast is added to grape juice.  The yeast consumes the grape's sugar and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide."