Trout in the Town:

Jerome and I scoping out bits of the Porter Brook - finding a big weir Continuing with the recent theme of the radical deculverting and habitat improvement work on Sheffield's Porter Brook - here is a quick update on a day spent walking and talking about potential further opportunities. The morning and some of the afternoon was spent in the company of Jerome Masters (EA Fisheries) in a combination of searching out potential sites to assess and then discussing options along with Sam Thorn and Jack Foxall of Sheffield City Council. The series of short sections might be possible to combine with some more planned deculverting work on another City Centre Tributary (The Sheaf) for further improvements to the connectivity of the Don Catchment - and also the quality and variety of available river corridor habitat. It will be my job in the coming weeks to come up with a variety of optional scenarios for each of the sites. Depending on the various constraints of either funding, avail...

One year into the Hogsmill Pollution Patrol - 470 reports of pollution being followed up. Read all about it here: http://www.southeastriverstrust.org/happy-anniversary-to-the-hogsmill-pollution-patrol/

Picking up from my previous post of the in-channel habitat creation - here are just a few photos to give an impression of the site's previous states. This gives a bit more of an idea of how little of the river was allowed to see the open air until pretty recently. Sheffield City Council have been steadily working to expose this buried watercourse... View downstream from the road bridge note the balcony/gantry on the right in the foreground Same view immediately after the in-channel habitat-works (note balcony/gantry on right of frame in foreground Starting to remove the brick-arch culverting At the downstream end of the removed brick culvert - a series of steel RSJs can now be seen spanning the river. These previously supported the concrete floor of a factory that was built on top of the river Here is a picture of all the RJSs (complete with poetic graffiti) The same view after the in-channel works and removal of RSJs So, a great deal of credi...

There will be more pictures and video to come to document this bold project by Sheffield City Council to uncover a section of stream that used to live beneath a factory floor. They are in the process of creating a "pocket park" that will provide new flood-water storage (when the rivers are in spate) and an improved public park amenity (when the rivers are calm). The pocket park itself will be excavated out from the current high ground level (and a major construction project is underway at the moment to achieve this). The Wild Trout Trust were brought in to design in-channel features and riverbed morphology that would maxmise the improvements for the ecology of the stream - including for the prospects of a small and fragmented native population of wild brown trout. The site after uncovering the stream - but before the in-channel works Part way through the Pocket Park Construction - new gabion walls and flood defenses Channel with boulder clusters, log deflector-consoli...

Stand out quote that encapsulates that we know a lot more about the mechanisms of damage to river ecosystems and their wild fish populations than even in Frank Sawyer's day. Its up to us to make sure we act on that knowledge. April Vokey's Journey from Vantage Point Media House on Vimeo .

It was a great pleasure to be involved at the end of this summer with a vibrant "Open Village" event in Clayton West in the Kirklees region of West Yorkshire. As well as the many musical, local business and art exhibitions - a local angler and wildlife enthusiast Phil Slater had arranged an event to help reconnect people with their river. Alongside Chris Firth MBE of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust we hoped to increase the awareness of the river and the challenges it faces. So many of the local families that came to the riverside activities (including bug dipping and fly casting lessons)came away with a real enthusiasm for the river and its future care and enhancement. It was a great testament to Phil's own passion for the river and the commitment he has made to see things continue to improve on this tributary of the Don (in 2015, right down at the confluence with the River Don, the first salmon parr was recorded on the Dearne in an Environment Agency survey). The ri...

Westcountry Rivers Trust worked on 5 river catchments. For every £1 they spent on restoration - between £1.91 and £4.50 of economic value to society was gained (Click Picture to view full size) It seems to be quite a common view that "nature" is a "nice to have" once we have taken care of jobs, business and the economy in general. A bit of a luxury when we've got some loose change left over from taking care of progress... The problem with that is it misses the point that nobody will be doing business/earning money without functioning, healthy ecosystems. You'd struggle to breathe, for example, if there isn't enough photosynthesis happening. The epic (and fantastic) project to restore rivers in five catchments in the south west of the UK (by Westcountry Rivers Trust) included work by independent financial analysts "NEF". The costs of doing habitat improvement and restoration were smaller than the economic value that they added to the Westco...