The River Wye needs some friends! We’re here to defend and champion our local river. The Wye is at a low ebb, suffering from severe pollution and the effects of climate change. Many factors are influencing the poor health of the river including intensive agriculture, the discharge of human sewage and the increased frequency of severe flooding events. Algal blooms are starving our river of light and oxygen, damaging irreplaceable ecosystems and killing the river from the bottom up.

Our aim is to better understand these complex problems and to offer practical solutions that anyone inspired to help the river can get involved with. We run a citizen science project to enable local people to become guardians of their nearest stretch of river and monitor water quality on a regular basis.

The Wye is a river that captures the imagination. We encourage individuals and groups to get creative on behalf of the river and shine a light on the true value of the Wye to the communities that live and work along it.

Our long-term goal is to restore the ecological health of the river for all the wildlife that calls it home, for the local communities who depend on it, and for the visitors who come to enjoy this beautiful river landscape. We will pursue all means to make the Wye a clean river, properly protected, so that it can be enjoyed for generations to come. 

We are a strong grassroots voice for the Wye and hold the combined power of two major groups, Friends of the Upper Wye and Friends of the Lower Wye, which have joined forces to become Friends of the River Wye.  Friends of the Upper Wye started out as a grassroots community group in the summer of 2020 and became a registered charity, incorporating Friends of the Lugg, in 2022. Our charity number is 1198234. ‘Friends of the River Wye’ is our new working name.

You can read our constitution here.

We know that there is power in partnership so we have a broad network. Our citizen science project was designed in a prize-winning collaborative effort with Cardiff University and fellow Wye catchment environmental groups. All the Wye catchment citizen-science groups have come together in the Wye Alliance to promote the ecological health of the river and make all our data public. Friends of the River Wye has close relations with our local Wildlife Trusts in Herefordshire and Radnorshire. We contribute to the Wye Catchment Partnership. We are also a member of the Wye Nutrient Management Board which influences, advises and challenges the work of Welsh and English public bodies on environmental protection of the Wye. We also work with Save the Wye which campaigns throughout the catchment and with many well-known national environmental organisations.

Click below to join our mailing list and find out how you can help the Wye.

For any press or media enquiries please email press@friendsoftheriverwye.org.uk.