Juggling projects
June 1, 2010
This should be a much shorter blog than they have been of late – not because I’ve done less in quantity, but less in diversity. It was a strange week in that I didn’t have any meetings or site visits planned, but it meant that I could knuckle down on a few things I’ve been avoiding!
Monday Philip came in and we went through the usual, and then I concentrated on getting our Highways licence for the A59 culverts. This took some time but I got it nearly done. After we had some juggling to do with the River fly partnership training day which is now fully booked not for one day but for two. This is partly due to the massive interested we had from some of the volunteer countryside rangers but also the readers of the Clitheroe Advertiser who saw our article two weeks ago.
Tuesday I sorted my electro fishing program – and man oh man am I going to busy this year!! But I enjoy the surveying as much if not more than anything so 12 hour days aside it’s going to be good! Following that it was up to Dunsop to carry out some maintenance on the spawning channels. Which was to spread the gravel build up at the entrance into the channel to improve spawning. I saw some true salmonid fry which were bigger than I expected but just what I needed to make me feel better about starting electro fishing in 3 weeks. After that it was back to the office to get my application for electro fishing, access, and survey on SSSI sites sent off. Which is a month in advance of last year!
Wednesday I worked on GIS data (Computer based mapping tools and data) in the office, looking at the rivers and streams that flow through the Duchy of Lancaster estate and a quick site visit to Talbot bridge to inspect of work progress. In the evening I attended the RFCA AGM, and it was good to see such a large turn out.
Thursday I had some project bids and paper work to sort out which took me the best part of the day, but I fitted in some GIS barrier data work in.
Friday I visited Talbot bridge to check the notch and flow levels through the bottom pool. We then had to make a couple of minor amendments to the notch widths and positioning, which took a long time because of the flow modelling involved, fish passes are a nightmare! Removal is the best option, anything that takes as much calculation as a fish pass is just not a sensible option!
Saturday, yes we even work Saturdays! With a couple of volunteer I headed to Swanside to finish off the major part of the work to the weir there. Thanks to the hard graft, and a chainsaw (risk assessment and qualification check done!) we finished much faster than expected and below you can see the results. After we had finished and were clearing up we then had a very unwelcome visitor…see below!
Making a start!
The finished article
The unwelcome visitor
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