Our first e news letter
August 17, 2010
Well I am feeling a little worn out, projects are charging ahead, we’re planning next years and bidding for money, and at the same time I’m trying to do surveys and restore a house!
We have now completed all but three of our main barrier projects, and two of our habitat schemes. There is still some paperwork and tidying up to do but the work itself is done. Barrowford 3 should start on the 25th of this month and Hodder gauging weir before the end of the month. The other is the A59 road bridge which has people working on it as I type!
Much of this work and plenty of others is summed up in our first e-news letter:
We hope to do one of these a year as well as our usual newsletter.
The electro fishing goes well, however I’m being held up by low flows and high temperatures, the Dunsop yesterday was running at 19.2 degrees Celsius. The high temperature means low oxygen which can cause fish much stress if electro fished so we are going to have to wait until temperatures drop a little and water levels raise. What a difference from last year!
Yesterday I was witness to the full effect of the abstraction on the Whitendale, with good flows going into the abstraction point and nothing passing to the river channel below. But it was heartening to think that after the hard work of many organisations on the catchment that the flow alleviation scheme has now been given the full go ahead and work will soon start to make sure that there is always some water going down the river from the abstraction point. This will help not just fish but invertebrates, birds and otters (of which we found several spraints yesterday!).
Walkers passing us electro fishing yesterday were really excited by the fish and inverts, plus the signs of otters, it just goes to show the interest there is in rivers beyond those with direct interests like anglers!
I hope that our projects for next year on the Calder catchment (The Urban Rivers Enhancement Scheme or URES) get funded as we can bring wildlife and interest to people of the Calder catchment who probably haven’t seen such things on their doorsteps in many years. And when you can see the wildlife that rivers can support you can generate a new found respect for the environment, not just in the water but all around you… so cross you fingers!
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