Starting to draw some conclusions from 2009 surveys
October 27, 2009
Well after a much need break, plus a week back in the groove this post might be a little bit on the long side! However I will try to keep it a little shorter than I will be otherwise tempted to do!
Although it was meant to be a full two weeks off I came in for the first to days as there were a few loose ends that needed tidying up before I went on “recharge”. Starting with a meeting with Philip, whom I had not seen in nearly a month. This is mainly because of the surveys, once I had picked up Brad each morning we normally headed straight out to get as much done as possible so missing the monday morning meeting. We had much to catch up on, state of projects, invert survey results, electro fishing, crayfish, equipment and plans for next year. Once this was done I managed to get out some of our invoices for works done, habitat projects, surveys and fish rescues. As well as sorting out lots of correspondance on which I was a little behind!Then a few days off, hoping to get a Ribble salmon, unfortunately the weather only gave me two opportunities and I failed on both occasions.
Monday of last week, it was straight back into the thick of it, I went straight to Lutra House (Regional home of the EA) to meet the Calder, Yarrow and Lostock pollution team. This was a really useful meeting, getting to know a few more faces and forming more links from which we can work. We talked about what we do as a trust, how we attempt to get funded, as well as what their team do and how we can work together, some very exciting plans were mentioned about potential anti pollution projects from the team, I hope these come off, as they will fit in nicely with the opening up of the Calder catchment to salmon and sea trout. After the meeting I headed back and had a chat with Philip and Stephen in the office, and them I headed up to the Don to look at the fish pass we have built there.
The Don fish pass is our first proper works on the Calder Catchment. We have installed a fish pass on an impassable weir that is right at the bottom of the Don sub-catchment as it joins the River Brun in Burnley. This is a nice project targetting brown trout specifically, and our many thanks go to the Wild Trout Trust and Lancashire County Council for their support on this project (A full page article on this project will be published on the site soon and will also appear in the WTT Newsletter).
After, Before, and our supporters at the Wild Trout Trust
Tuesday I took stock of the equipment and what state it was in, which lead me to giving the truck a good wash down (a bi-yearly event!). Stephen and I then headed up to look at Hellifield fish easement, supported by the EA. It’s a simple staggered baffle arrangement to create a central channel of deeper water to allow fish ease of access under the A682 near Hellifield.
Before and After
After this we went to Stock beck near Bracewell to look at the channel improvement works Stephen has done there. This was the final year of a three year program that has seen the channel improve significantly, allowing salmon to migrate through and above the works to spawn almost within Barnoldswick itself – something many find hard to believe!
Wednesday Stephen, myself and our specialist river works contractors (Bailey’s developments) headed out to survey and visit many of the projects that we will be undertaking next year, some on the Calder and two on Swanside. This lead to a couple of design changes, but all in all everyone was happy and hopefully the quotes will come back within budget. After that I went and picked up my electro fishing data from Bradley who had kindly entered all of the data, this was no small task, and a big thanks to him for doing that!
Thursday I started by getting hold of a free CAD (computer aided design) program that allowed me to draw up the fish pass designs and get them ready for submitting for land drainage consent from the EA. Stpehen and I then set about checking the new trout in the Classroom tank that we are putting into Whalley primary school this year, thank fully all was right and this will soon be ready for putting into the school. Once that was done the onerous task of starting to prepare the EF data for analysis began. This continued through into Friday, and took up much of my time, but I did get out with Stephen to inspect another proposed job on Swanside. We met the various landowners (who were all dead keen on the project – a real rarity!) and are now in a position to submitt land drainage consent applications. I also briefly looked at the consultation for Water based recreation and arranged some site visits with EA catchment officers. A fairly busy first week back I think you might agree!!!!
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