Forging new links

February 16, 2010

Last week was a positive one, with plenty of new connections made and hopefully new partnerships started.  The week was rounded of nicely when on Sunday I was out with my other half and the dog, taking photos of our new Angling Passport Beat on Stock beck.  The dog vanished and after a few minutes I found her chewing on the remains of a dead salmon kelt.  After the initial anger with the dog it soon turned to happiness to know that another salmon had been up the once heavily polluted beck to continue it’s species.

Monday I had lots of bits and pieces to do, speaking to stake holders groups in Barrowford, followed by an evening meeting to discuss our project over there and get some of their input (Thank you friends of Barrowford Park I felt it was a positive and productive session).  We also popped into Edisford and Whalley to drop in the Trout books that every primary school in the area should have!  And whilst there we discovered that a few and only a few of the eggs had hatched and some alevins were tucked into the gravel.

Tuesday we met with a prospective, now turned definite, work placement for the summer survey season.  Neil was very positive and being from the area and also having an interesting trout fishing will help him with keeping the enthusiasm even in the rain!  In the afternoon Stephen and I headed up to Bottoms Beck above Stocks reservoir to have a “look-see”.  Having never been up there it was an interesting beck and larger than I had expected.

Wednesday was a busy day, in the morning we were non-stop in the office, with projects, passport schemes and the usual and at lunch time I headed out to meet the Land agents for the Duchy of Lancaster.  Also there was Philip, Kyle from the EA, and Alistair Maltby from ARTs.  We discussed some of the issues facing their waters, and how they could be tackled, much of which is a balancing act between land management being commercially viable and what will benefit the river.  The most important thing was visiting the small becks, which most think are ditches, however once informed of the number of salmon and trout juveniles in these “ditches” a new attitude and plan was formulated.  We look forward to working with the Duchy to improve the water courses on the estate.

Thursday was a meeting with Seumus Eaves from FWAG.  This was really a touch base, exchange ideas and look for overlaps in projects where we could help.  Several were found and I also look forward to working with FWAG in the future.

Friday we met with a few members of the EA Ribble Pollution team to discuss how our monitoring and projects could be incorporated into their plans for improving becks.  We found several projects, all of which are quite exciting and a little different, but nothing imminent, these are big projects to address in coming years.

Finally it has been pointed out to me that we at the trust are not clear on our attitude towards barriers.  Following last weeks post an email came to me that suggested that suggesting combined hydro fish passes legitimized barriers to migration.  So to be clear, when we come across a barrier, it goes on our data base, we then look at the barrier and consider the following options, in this order:

  1. REMOVE
  2. REMOVE
  3. REMOVE
  4. If can’t remove, then Larinier Fish pass,
  5. IF can’t afford Larinier, the Denil Fish pass,
  6. If can’t afford Denil, pool and traverse, or pre barrage
  7. Do nothing

There are various reasons why we can’t remove, generally it will be down to the land owner or an authority, such as Highways not wanting a weir removed that is the foundation of a bridge.  So we then look to find the next solution.  But always we look to remove barriers, as they have more than just the impact of cutting off habitat, but ruining habitat down stream.  

When we get to the point of “do nothing” a combined Hydro/fish pass, may mean that we can actually avoid “doing nothing”.  For example opening up 1km of water on a tiny beck at the cost of many thousands of pounds will not be very viable as we won’t find grants/funding.  However if someone were to put a hydro scheme in we could combine a fish pass hopefully for a much lower cost.  Thus achieving something that would not otherwise be achievable.  But this to me is the second to last option

Posted by Charles Edward Poate | Filed Under General News, Recreation, Restoration and Conservation Projects, Threats to the River, Working Partners 

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