‘It's like pea soup’: poultry farms turn Wye into wildlife death trap

Phosphate-rich runoff from free-range chickens is causing the spread of algal blooms that devastate the river's ecosystem

The beauty of the River Wye has been acclaimed for centuries. If you have never navigated the Wye, you have seen nothing," wrote the travel writer William Gilpin 250 years ago. And its reputation still makes it a magnet for visitors who regularly vote it one of the country's most beautiful rivers.

But conservationists have warned that the Wye, which meanders south from the craggy peaks of mid-Wales to the lush pastures of the Severn estuary, is today under serious threat - and from an unusual source. They say the pollution from increasing numbers of free-range poultry farms near its banks is now seriously damaging the river.