Woodland Trust
Planted woodland helps prevent water pollution from farm runoff
Farming is one of the areas that stands to be dramatically affected by climate change. This is one reason why sustainability has moved to the forefront of the industry. And in order to make farming more sustainable, it is often necessary to come up with new ways of thinking about waste management. In Northern Ireland, a dairy farmer is teaming up with conservationists with a unique approach to preventing water pollution. Farmer John Doherty owns the 300-acre Crosshead Farm, where he has a herd of several hundred dairy cows. His land is on top of a hill which drains into the River Faughan, an important protected habitat, and home to otters and salmon, and a source of drinking water for nearby Derry. Doherty has been working with the Woodland Trust to plant four acres of woodland trees around a pond.