3B or not 3B

Further to my updates on the river works this week, Nigel has submitted a full report, which I thought you'd like to read. 3B will look quite different next time you see it, so here's a few pictures to see if you can identify the exact locations of some of the improvements in the meantime.

This week we have had a task force from the South East Rivers Trust (SERT) working at Harpers Farm on Beat 3b between the footbridge and the sewage treatment works. Peter has already given an update on the work carried out at the backwater/refuge on Monday, but I can bring everyone up to date on the other work carried out.

A fair number of trees have been felled, mainly ash and alder, in order to open up some areas of the river to let in more light. This will hopefully encourage the growth of weed in the river. The felled timber has been put to good use in a number of ways. 

  Some timber has been used to create deflectors in the river, which should lead to cleaner gravels and hopefully more areas for fish such as brown trout and grayling to spawn. They should also create more areas where trout and grayling will hold during the fishing season.

  Some of the timber and brash/branches has been used to create new timber and brash berms, as well as to increase the size and density of some existing ones. They have been placed near to the deflectors and will hopefully provide good habitat for newly hatched fry and other small fish in the future. They should also provide good habitat for aquatic invertebrates.

  We also installed a tree kicker into the river, using some steel cable. This will swing gently in the current and provide cover for trout and other fish. It is the first time we have done this and we will monitor the impact over the next year or so to determine whether it is worth doing this again.

  Finally we created some habitat piles (or hibernaculum) on the bank in a couple of places using some of the timber we didn’t need elsewhere.

  Overall we have now created a whole series of features over a sizeable section of the river that will hopefully result in more wild trout and grayling and gradually “seed” the river with with more wild fish. We will continue to try and carry out further work to enhance the habitat for trout and grayling in our regular work parties.

  For me personally this week was a great opportunity to learn some new techniques from the SERT team in river restoration, which may well be used in the future.

The work has had the full support of Stephen, the landowner at Harpers Farm, and we are very fortunate to have a landowner who is so keen to allow us and the SERT to carry out work to enhance the habitat for fish and invertebrates.

Finally, I would like to thank the SERT team; Harry, Luke, Nick, George and Andy. They worked extremely hard all week and were very patient with my constant flow of questions and suggestions.

 Nigel

Thanks to Nigel for all his hard work helping and supporting the team all week.

PeterB