Helping our salmon and sewin to come home
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Author: |
Indeg Jones |
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Date published: |
1-May-2008 |
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Keywords: |
oak, fish pass |
Salmon and sea trout (sewin) are entering our Welsh rivers as they begin their Spring “run”. This year many will find new stretches of river open to them for spawning as a result of new fish passes constructed from sustainable Welsh Oak.
The old tradition of building weirs, to support industry’s need for water and to control river levels, has prevented fish, like salmon and sewin, returning to the headwaters of our rivers to breed. Some fish stocks are not what they were, so we need every stretch of suitable headwater available to help fish stocks return to previous numbers. The building of fish passes on our rivers is one of the most sustainable ways of achieve this.
Fish passes can by very expensive to build, often well in excess of £100,000. Environment Agency Wales and its partners from the Local Authorities, Rivers Trusts, Coed Cymru and SIREN (the conservation education charity) are finding new and innovative ways of building these passes. Where appropriate we have tried to move away from using materials such as galvanised steel and concrete and turning more to traditional materials to deliver fish pass solutions to open up our rivers to fish.
A number of weirs and culverts have now been modified by installing fish passes made from Welsh Oak. This has proved successful for a number of reasons.
• it can be much cheaper than passes constructed in concrete
• we can install more for the same money
• the wood can be modified in situ to attain optimum performance
• unlike concrete, wood is a sustainable local product
• if damaged the passes can be repaired or replaced
• the oak can last for many years in water without decay
Sustainable green Oak for the passes is sourced by the Monmouthshire County Council’s Wentwood Timber Centre, from locally grown and harvested Welsh woodland sites. The passes have been designed jointly by Coed Cymru, using their specific skills in working with wood, and Environment Agency Wales’ staff who provided the technical input and delivered the projects.
Chris Mills, Director Environment Agency Wales, said: “We are always trying to do more for the environment. This approach has not only allowed us to open up more spawning areas, which will help increase fish stocks, we are also using a sustainable material to achieve this goal.”
Rick Longford, Economic Development Manager with Monmouthshire County Council, said: “This is partly why we set up the Wentwood Timber Centre. We want to provide bespoke solutions to support environmentally sensitive projects in a sustainable way. The centre is proud to be working with Environment Agency Wales and Coed Cymru in this way. We are keen to develop further links and projects with the Agency and other organisations over coming months, to aid the viability of the centre.”
The work has been carried out in Wales as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s funded Sustainable Fisheries Programme and also the Lugg project, that seeks to enhance biodiversity in this major Wye tributary. Both projects aim to maximise the social and economic benefits of angling within the local community.
Examples of where sustainable fish passes have been constructed are:
Cynhordy, River Bran, Carmarthenshire
Llwydarth culvert, Ogmore River, Bridgend
Afon Argoed, Port Talbot
Nant Ogwrn, Carmarthenshire
Mortimers Cross, Herefordshire
Ballsgate, Herefordshire
Upper Lye, Herefordshire
Yatton Court, Herefordshire
Several more fish passes are also in the planning stages to be built over the next two years.
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Doc reference: |
TC035/08IJ |
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Contact: |
