The field is now a grazing ground for horses, but because of
the massive re-developments upstream, the river bed had risen by several feet
turning the wall into a massive weir. Over time the river has spilled over the
wall and eroded the original river bank, altering the water’s course. In times
of floods the water has re-directed over the structure and into the fields. Not
only were the banks consistently being eroded, but it was causing problems for
migratory fish in the river - Especially as they are prone to running the river
when there is excess water. Here I could see the Healthy Rivers Program in
action, but removing this formidable obstacle was going to take some doing!
Arriving at the site and walking down to the river, it was not difficult to see why the Landowner wanted the wall removed. The bank had been stripped away from years of erosion. Today I found a large digger knocking chunks out of the wall. Upstream, Hywel and his team were busy cutting back fallen trees and ensuring that there were secure locations for the deflectors, which would hopefully further reduce bank erosion.
Looking at the river, I was amazed to see how clear it was.
Frankly it looked positively fishy! I was also informed that the team had seen
Kingfishers whizzing about that morning, which speaks volumes about the water
quality. Fish were topping everywhere, making me wish I had a short fly rod to
hand! The Groundwork team aimed to insert a series of “deflectors” into the
banks of the river to gently alter the water course away from the eroded banks.
This would be done with the aid of recently felled timber (from the site) and
some rather large nuts and bolts which would fix everything securely to the
river bed.
Before the ground started moving (quite literally), I spoke
with the landowner who described his ideal scenario once these works were
completed. It involved a fishing lake, so naturally I was all ears. The old playing
field, which is now grazing land, would ideally be converted into a trout
fishery - and only a trout fishery due to its proximity to the river. However,
the landowner informed me that he had sadly encountered some problems with
various official bodies, and things were temporarily on hold. The focus in this
instance was purely on the river and improving the habitat in and around the
river so that it could become a more passable river for the migratory fish.
With that said the landowner hopped into his digger and was
away. It was incredible to see the machine deftly moving and carefully
positioning enormous logs and boulders with ease. Before long the first of 3
deflectors was taking shape, and the concrete wall was coming out in lumps
(thanks to the considerably larger digger and a pneumatic jack hammer). Hywel
and his team were also busy spraying the Japanese knotweed along the bank, to
try and prevent it spreading further. I was informed that the field I was
currently standing on had previously been covered by this invasive species, and
only through the landowners (and his colleagues) hard work had it been cut back
to its current levels. Clearly a lot of work had already been done!
This site visit hammered home to me the amount of work that
goes on behind the scenes, whether it involves Groundwork, the Environment
Agency or any other charity which is involved in habitat rejuvenation. As an
angler I was incredibly pleased to see these measures being taken by a team of
individuals who aimed to improve the river’s quality so that people could enjoy
it in years to come. I for one will be eager to assist the Groundworks team in
the future and wouldn’t mind getting my hands dirty if it meant I could say I
aided the re-introduction of Salmon into the Sirhowy River!
0 comments:
Post a Comment