]> 2026-04-09T03:55:42+00:00 Case study:Millfield Plantation 2 500 en For more information on this and other projects in Combined Essex catchment Approved Creation of wooden deflectors Introducing large woody debris silt depositon on the flood plain Essex Wildlife Trust Great Britain Yes No Yes false Old derelict channel.JPG Mouth of derelict channel.JPG Heavily incised channel.JPG Yes Kieren Alexander Ess Ess Essex Wildlife Trust The River Pant has low flow issues during the summer, and is also a conduit for the Ely-Ouse transfer system, these must be protected at all costs. Therefore any connection to the floodplain must take this into account. Also, due to the constraints of having to ensure that the landowner can keep access to the surrounding fields we have had to go for a formal connection, in an ideal world we would go for a more informal connection that would offer additional benefits to fish fry and avoid the need for an eel screen to prevent eels from being deposited in the new back channel. 51.981826580834,0.40380952181295 KierenAlexander Kieren Essex Wildlife Trust Alexander Creation of wooden deflectors,,Floodplain reconnection,,Introducing large woody debris, silt depositon on the flood plain ,,, Kieren Alexander Essex Wildlife Trust There will be low key monitoring surrounding this project. Fixed point photography will be utilised to monitor any changes in vegetation and land forming. There will be regular monitoring of riverflies in these reach, an improvement in these may point to an improvement in the water quality in this reach. Kieren Alexander 13368 Back Channel to be restored, River Pant in the foreground Kieren Alexander Essex Wildlife Trust Channel to be restored, at Millfield Plantation.JPG 2012-04-01Z 2456018.5 In progress The river restoration project at Millfield plantation builds on the work also being undertaken at Bocking Blackwater local nature reserve, Ironbridge Farm and Plough Hill farm. All the projects are linked both thematically and geographically and are focused on improving the status of the river under the water framework. Currently the river Pant is failing under WFD, a number of issues have been identified including physical modification, fish passage and both point source and diffuse pollution. This manifests itself in a manner of ways, most notably with a heavily modified channel which has been deepened and in places straightened but most importantly disconnected from its floodplain by large artificial bunds. The land use is predominantly arable and this can lead to some pollution events both diffuse and one of such as oil and other contaminants. It should be noted that Essex and Suffolk water have done a huge amount to improve the status of this river by landowner interaction and education and this project aims to build on this. After a period of consultation and a professional assessment looking at the feasibility of the project a plan was designed to start improving the water body. This will involve installing a pipe at the mouth of an old channel, we do not know exactly know what the original purpose of this channel was but it is likely to be an old mill race that due to historical management has been increasingly separated from the original channel. However, it now offers a unique chance to reconnect the floodplain and contribute to water quality via the installation of a new 300mm culvert and simple pipe. This will allow the back channel to go from being inundated a handful of times a year to up to 15 or 16 times. This will only be transitory inundation, we are not planning on installing anything that will hold water back but it should be enough to kick start some changes in the vegetation structure promoting semi-aquatic and marginal vegetation. It will be this vegetation as it develops that allows the water to be filtered, silt will also be given the chance to settle out on the floodplain, further improving the condition of the river and its value to invertebrates and fish. In addition to the back channel connection there will also be installation of several bits of woody debris further downstream to kick start geomorphological processes in the river such as riffle creation, berms, flow dynamics and some bank erosion. It also has a part to play in diffuse pollution removal by pushing water through soil which removes nitrate via dentrification. All the consents are now in place for this project and earthworks as due to commence in August 2015, completing soon after. Once complete, we should start to see the benefits in the following winter. Millfield Plantation 2 millfield plantation 2 http://http://www.essexrivershub.org.uk/ Yes Combined Essex Anglian Floodplain reconnection Pant pant Millfield Plantation millfield plantation Kieren Alexander Essex Wildlife Trust 10 - 100 km² 130 100 - 200 m Pant GB105037041180 Flood risk management Habitat and biodiversity Hydromorphology Water quality GB105037041180 Pant Kieren Alexander Essex Wildlife Trust 2014-08-11Z 2456880.5 2014-07-15T14:33:31Z 2456854.1066088 2015-05-12T14:34:37Z 2457155.1073727 Millfield Plantation 2 500 1 plainlist 5 [[Category:Case study]] [[Project title::!Millfield Plantation 2]] [[Subcatchment title::Pant]] Millfield Plantation 2# QUERYd47e616883dd881c50b4f533668a01b5