Keeping rain water where it should be kept…
January 6, 2012
Well I won’t need to tell any of you who live locally what the weathers been like! I have been amazed by the sheer persistance of the rain, the rivers have been above average daily flows for weeks now. I hope that these big spates and near flooding haven’t done to much damage to our fish redds. I suspect that many of the salmon kelts from this years spawning will be in very poor condition now. HAving spawned they will have used up almost all of their fat reserves and high flow events like we’ve seen will result in high numbers of mortalities as the fish are either battered against banks and rocks or their fat reserves exhausted completely. However high flows can be important to kelts, as if they are fit enough to return to sea then need higher water levels to make migration back to sea possible, but timing is everything. The fish need a chance to recover from spawning and prepare for the downward journey.
It is these high flows that also cause bank erosion, flooding, consented discharges from sewage works and many other problems that affect both rivers and communities. Often the high flows are exsaperated by land drainage, often on the upland moors. The drainage I’m refering to, many will have guessed, are called grips. These drain peat moors to improve grassland, but as a result they can increase peak flows in rivers and carry with them increased amounts of peat from the moors.
On Wednesday I undertook a “perilous” journey up onto Blea Moor with a colleague from Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and the EA. I say perilous, but really mean very very wet, windy and cold! Blea Moor is a moor that on one side drains into Gayle Beck one of the formative becks of the Ribble. Up on the moors highest point we are selectively blocking grips to reduce the speed of run-off and thus peak flows of the river, and provide a more consistent river level. It will also help to reduce diffuse pollution, restore blanket bog and thus increase carbon sequestration.
I have never been as wet in all my life, the gales driving the rain penetrated my new water proofs (a xmas present) and soaked me to the skin! But when we got to the blocked grips nothing could contain my excitement over our work – much to the amazement of a my colleagues. The blocked grips were working fantastically well and it was plainly visible that we had slowed the rate of run off. This project has been a real challenge for Ribble Trust, working with new partners and closer than ever with existing ones. There have been many obstacles, but through the effective management and dedication of both the trust and it partners we have got there. It just shows what can be achieved with a dedicated, skilled and experienced team (ok I’ll stop with the gloating!)
Grips blocked on Blea Moor retaining water where it should be
Uphill view of Blocked Grips
Other good news includes the EA securing funding for their contribution to the spring salmon tagging project, don’t forget to visit Gareth’s page on this, and have placed the order, fingers cross we will have the project running by mid February.
Our Ribble Life website is nearing completition and much of the content will be around how to get involved in specific aspects of fixing rivers. There’ll be link from our website as soon as it goes live. We have been engaging many community groups, landowners, businesses and other organisations. If we can turn everyones enthusiasm into action on the ground the Ribble is going to be a better place.
URES is really gathering pace, Vic has been busy talking to various community groups, and all her progress will be on the URES website, also soon to go live. The modelling for where we can do work is well underway. And the first fish pass we are tackling will commence in the next few months.
We recently met with our other partners on the Invasives project, for which we prepared a summary. Although before the summary we felt that perhaps we hadn’t achieved as much as we wanted when you list it all out it’s incredible what Charlie and Adam have pulled off in just 2 months. If you have any invasives to report please visit the website http://www.lancashireinvasives.org/. Although this isn’t the best time of year for tackling invasives, it has been the best time of year for preparing and contacting landowners and other groups. The guys have built a data base of 68 key landowners and secured committments from many of them. They have also had volunteers sign up for the mink trapping (27 traps in operation) and collated 7293 invasives species records for the Ribble and Lancashire – Plus much more.
Katie has almost finished her first appraisal of the Darwen, and she’s booked me down for a tour of the Darwen at the end of this month to start the next phase of the project. She has found several really encouraging areas but more poor areas. I became a little concerned at the sinister grin, as she explained before the start of the Darwen project she felt anything was possible but not anymore. Hopefully a visit from me will reinstall the “anything is possible” enthusiam and not drain my enthusiam.
Well I think that’s enough out of me for this week. Don’t forget to get intouch if you are interested in helping with tree planting over the next 3 months (dates to be confirmed).
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