Property:Project summary
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This is a property of type Text.
L
Cornwall Wildlife Trust works on behalf of the Looe Bathing Water Quality Partnership, which aims to protect Looe’s bathing waters from pollution. Partner organisations, farmers and the local community have committed over £300,000 to protect the rivers and bathing waters. +
C
Craigton Farm sits inside a large meander of the Allan Water between the villages of Ashfield and Kinbuck. The Allan Water has two large areas downstream of Craigton classified as Potentially Vulnerable Areas to flooding, which include the townships of Dunblane and Bridge of Allan. During flood events, out of channel flow passes across the Craigton Farm fields where little rugosity exists to attenuate the flood water.
Click the link to see video footage of flood water flowing back into the Allan Water at the downstream side of the meander encompassing Craigton Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk-AUS_9r60
Objectives of the project were: to reduce the speed of the out of channel flow across the farm fields; restore and increase natural riparian habitat that will benefit terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity; increase the opportunity for woody debris interaction in the river system that will benefit fisheries and habitat diversity; create an area of enhanced natural beauty for local communities to enjoy; provide an opportunity for local people to be able to learn, manage and harvest a locally sustainable food resource through the Craigton Community Orchard Group; and an opportunity to engage with local residents about Natural Flood Management by obtaining local volunteers to carry out the tree planting.
Work carried out: 420 riparian tree species including downy birch, goat willow, osier, hawthorn, rowan and hazel were planted on the banks of the Allan Water at Craigton Farm inline with breaches in the embankment at the upstream end of the meander, and where flood water flows back into the river at the downstream end. 300 trees were planted on the upstream side of the site and the remaining 120 trees were planted on the downstream side. Trees were planted by volunteers with emphasis given to plant trees at random spacing and in dense clumps inline with out of channel flow pathways. The width of the tree planting is around 5m for the majority of the two sections, however there is a fenced area on the upstream side of the meander that has been planted up to 30m width at points, bringing the planted area to around 0.5ha.
In addition, willow cuttings/whips 6-9inches long were collected from local willows and planted in parts of the river bank that would have a lot of flow interaction such as at the water's edge, eroded bank faces or inline with out of channel flow pathways to increase rugosity without risking more valuable tree species.
23 orchard trees were planted in an old disused horse field in the flood pathway on the upstream side of the farm. The orchard was designed so that no distinct channels or rows existed facing the direction of flow flood water would come from. This resulted in a ping-pong table planting design that is aimed to dissipate energy from flood water passing through the orchard. Mound planting was used to elevate the root ball of the orchard trees above the ground level to help protect the roots from being submerged for long periods in flood water, and therefore affecting the orchard trees survival. Orchard trees were planted 10m apart to allow room for growth, and ease of access, maintenance and harvest in the future.
In addition, 105 wild harvest shrub species were planted in a similar ping-pong table style design, behind the orchard trees. The wild harvest trees create another obstacle for flowing flood water to pass through dissipating more energy. The field that comprises the orchard and wild harvest trees covers 1ha.
Challenges included managing volunteers in a fun manner whilst also ensuring they plant trees correctly, and continual maintenance and care of trees over the long term.
Funding:
*420 wet woodland trees obtained through the Woodland Trust's Free Trees Grant;
*23 orchard trees obtained from the Central Scotland Green Network's Orchard Grant Scheme;
*and 120 wild harvest obtained through the Woodland Trust's Free Trees Grant.
L
Create a new ditch and wetland features including ponds and reedbeds with broadwalks and interpretation. Sheet piled banks adjacent to Walthamstow Marshes SSSI, poor quality land adjacent to the river. +
B
Create an off-line reedbed to provide riparian connectivity, refugia during high flows and marginal habitat which is currently absent. The Beverley Brook flows in a perched nature though steep shaded embankments with no in-channel processes or vegetation. +
C
Creation of a Constructed Farm Wetland to improve farm runoff protection of the CoundBrook tributary of the River Severn
A large mixed arable and sheep farm in the Shrewsbury area recognised they could reduce the risk of runoff occurring from their farm and associated yard area which also included septic tanks and soak aways
With the help of STEPS (Severn Trent Environmental Protection Scheme) funding and advice they constructed a large wetland (reed bed feeding into a pool) designed to capture and slow down any runoff, potential spillage or overflow from the farm areas and to provide tertiary treatment prior to entering any downstream watercourses
The wetland and reedbed cost £15,000 in total of which the STEPS grant covered 33% of the cost with the farmer contributing the rest
Pleased with the results of this work and the financial and advisory help provided through the STEPS scheme, this farmer has gone on to successfully apply for further STEPS funded improvements. +
Creation of a back water and enhance the river bank by creating wet margins. Fencing of new features to protect from heavy horse grazing. Contaminated silt issues in pond / backwater. The field survey suggests that the reserve supports a population of water voles. +
F
Creation of a backwater of variable depth and gentle sloping margins. enhancements for fishery and wildlife. Silted up, heavily shaded. Unused part of a farm adjacent to the canal.<br>Funding secured and commitment to deliver - August 2010 (LRAP update). Good replication potential. +
H
Creation of back channel and enhancement of flood bank ecology. Habitat improvement +
U
Creation of backwater ponds Reasons for enhancements:<br>Enhance/promote green lung adjacent to Uxbridge industrial estate<br>Erosion of paths<br>Water vole colony appears to have died out<br>Unmanaged and deteriorating +
K
Creation of features; berms; shelves; possible creation of backwater; tree works to lighten up the channel in places;<br>realignment in places. The river runs down the side of a bland looking park. It has a natural bed and banks, but is largely devoid of features.<br>The river would benefit from the above works, more marginal habitat and flora would be created as a result. +
L
Creation of floodplain wetlands, restore pools and riffles, re-grade river bank, remove concrete bank, re-meandering, localised narrowing, redesign/remove weir, removal of toe boards. Channel uniform with predominantly natural bed and armoured banks. Lack of channel diversity and extended lengths of shallow water. Steep banks results in poor connectivity between the river and adjacent land. The site is public open space, but the river does not contribute to the park landscape. +
B
Creation of functional backwater, reedbed enhancement, morphological improvements- brash berms and deflectors in channel +
R
Creation of junction nodes for Water Voles and re-wetting sections of the ditch network within the SSSI. Survey of Water Vole population on the site. The Inner Thames Marshes is a stronghold for Water Vole. The condition of the SSSI is poor and is currently unmanaged. The ditch network is also unmanged and some ditches are becoming silted up and dry. +
B
Creation of more natural banks and profile; introduction of backwaters to increase habitat; footbridge across river to increase access; bat boxes and brown roof. Building of new substation between Coppermill Close and Riverside Road. +
Č
Creation of ponds by partially filling up the deepened and straightened channel. +
F
Creation of wet reedbed shelves as part of redevelopment. The Roding is sheet piled and urban in nature. +
C
Culvert removal. The Chigwell Brook along this section is a relatively natural woodland brook. The stretch includes three long culverts, however it is unclear why culverting was put in place at all. The proposal is simply to remove the line of three culverts, the elongated headwalls and the concrete revetment upstream and downstream of each structure. The brook is shaded by the mature trees growing within the valley. There is little marginal vegetation, but this can be expected (RCTshredder communities). The bed is primarily exposed gravels. FRM should be improved; the cross-sectional flow capacity is likely to be improved as the culverts are fairly low and narrow. Debris was apparent at the mouth of one culvert at the time of survey. Ongoing maintenance should be lowered by the proposal as the risk of significant obstruction from debris at the mouth of the culverts will be removed. +
D
Culverted section of Moselle Brook through Lordship Recreation Ground was daylighted. New meandering channel dug with 30 degree banks planted with native species (mostly). New channel planted with flowering rush, sedge and flag. Appearance of new channel looked excellent, however due to the number of misconnections upstream the channel was full of sewage fungus and the water had a strong smell of raw sewage. +
E
Cumbria Wildlife Trust purchased the Eycott Hill Nature Reserve near Penrith (Photo 1 and Map 1) in April 2015. The reserve consists of important mire habitats, in amongst some less interesting areas of upland grassland. The aim of conservation management on the reserve is to create a more diverse mosaic of better quality upland habitats that will support a greater range of wildlife. This will result in a mixture of wetlands, mires, grasslands, woodlands, scrub and hay meadows along with a section of restored river. The grazing on the reserve has been changed from intensive sheep grazing to an extensive, all year round, low intensity system with hardy native breed cattle. After a relatively short time changes can already be seen in the vegetation, which has become much more complex in structure. Other conservation work has included extensive tree planting and the blocking of artificial drainage channels. In 2017, a section of canalised river will be restored. As well as the biodiversity benefits, the conservation management on the reserve should have wider environmental benefits including reducing flood risk and improving water and carbon storage.
Conservation management work at Eycott Hill will produce a more varied, complex mosaic of habitats that will be richer in wildlife, while slowing down and reducing the flow of water into part of the Derwent catchment. This catchment has suffered severe flooding in recent years and has several communities at risk including Keswick and Cockermouth. +
B
Currently, the River Blackwater (Pant, upstream) is classed under the Water framework Directive as heavily modified with poor potential. It is this assessment that drives this restoration project. This project is funded by the Environment Agencies Catchment Restoration fund and is part of the Essex Healthy headwaters scheme. Physical earthworks are due to commence in Summer 2015.
The site is an urban location and is designated as a local nature reserve. It is locally well loved, being popular with walkers, runners and cyclists. A majority of it is close mown grassland, however,there are significant wilder zones in places which are more typical of a Local Nature reserve.
The main aspect of this project is to enhance the river banks by reducing erosion, poaching and silt inputs, the second is to improve riparian habitat and floristic diversity, as an added benefit there should also be an improvement in water quality produced by filtration of the newly established root network.
The river banks will be restored using a mixture of bio engineering schemes including Coir rolls, willow spiling and bank re-profiling combined with Coir pallets. The Coir pallets and roles will be seeded with a combination of native species including flag iris, purple loosestrife and watermint among others. The current condition of the riverbank is floristically poor with either a monoculture of reeds, nettles or the invasive species Himalayan balsam.
Whilst the project is not specifically targeted to deal with invasive species it is hoped that there will be some benefit derived from introducing increased floristic diversity and extra competition.
The final major element of the project is to protect and enhance a deeply eroded section of riverbank. As this is a steep and heavily degraded slope the use of coir rolls and pallets would not be appropriate. Therefore the design solution decided on was to use willow spilling and use the spoil created from the bank reprofiling works to backfill behind the spiling. The idea is then that overtime the willow roots would bind the bank together preventing erosion and offer shading reducing river temperatures in the river over the summer months.
There is some potential to enhance a wetland area, known locally as the spreads by creating a series of ponds and redirecting an existing drain. This will allow any water to be filtered and settled before entering the river. The ponds overtime will develop into fine habitat and support a number of specialist species.
All the above should add up to the an overall improvement of the local Riverine habitat and an improvement in the general water quality and hydro morphological condition of the river.
Increase awareness of flood issues.