AUTUMN 2020 NEWSLETTER WTT ANNUAL RAFFLE 17 DECEMBER Fabulous prizes, see page 32 Do please buy a ticket or two

Sewage, slurry and abstraction • Pools for adult trout • Beavers Trout travellers • PLUS Updates from the conservation team You can help us to help wild trout in one easy cast... sign up a friend!

There are far more people who love wild trout and the rivers in which they swim, than there are members of the Wild Trout Trust.

So be a trouty champion... tell a fishing pal about the great work we do (and about our social events, the journal, the camaraderie of working on rivers) and sign him or her up as a member.

It really does make a difference: the more members we have, the more work we can do and the more our voice matters.

Challenge yourself to signing up a new member via our shop at www.wildtrout.org or by asking Christina to email or post a membership form ([email protected] / 023 9257 0985). Thank you. Reflections on the water... Shaun Leonard muses on WTT's past year or so

hat we do is advise and give conservation volunteers and student Wpractical help to angling clubs, groups, putting articles in specialist conservation groups, landowners and printed press, local and national government bodies to improve habitat newspapers and TV and radio. The for wild trout and other wildlife. In WTT website, blog and various social our 2019/20 financial year, to the end media platforms speak to an audience of last April, we did 207 advisory site of thousands, updating on our projects visits, not a bad effort to say our year with partners and the latest science was clipped by the first wave of Covid. Volunteers hard at work interpreted for the layman. We finally Over 400km of river was walked by printed our annual journal, Salmo the conservation officers; in one case Trutta, in September and, for the first alone, in Cumbria, our man, Gareth time, also as an e-zine on our website. Pedley, walked and assessed around You’ll see elsewhere in this newsletter 70km of stream! Much of what we that we did (and continue to do) a did was in England, but we also fair bit of direct representation to did some great work in Ireland, Governments and their agencies on covering 35km of one club’s water what it is we see when our expert and helping them make plans for team is out and about. habitat improvement, which they’ve and encouraging marginal plants When Covid hit, we simply couldn’t started to implement. What we and wildlife while in Devon, a plan get out to do what it is we do. As I repeatedly saw and reported on with the Taw Fishing Club has seen write now, in October, we’re all back was impact from man-made barriers, considerable thinning of overshaded and fiercely busy, with advisory work low flows, dredging and agriculture, river reaches and use of the arisings all over (though many planned visits including soil and nutrients hitting to create woody habitat features in Ireland are impossible at the the river from runoff and livestock in the river. WTT advice has moment) and practical projects in trampling of banks. also involved development with various stages of preparation or Our advice continues to be acted landowners of sub-catchment-scale delivery from Cumbria to Cornwall. on; even allowing for very high water environmental plans, including Parting shots… thank you to all levels in the 19/20 winter and then with two large estates in Yorkshire of you who have supported WTT Covid, 70% of recipients responding and the creation of a farm cluster through the year, for example in so far have enacted some or all the in Dorset, all aiming to improve spending so much in our annual recommendations from the visit. So, agricultural practice and lessen auction. Our friends in the fisheries for example, small weirs have been impact on the land and streams. teams of the EA have been stalwart taken out, trees and boughs put in Practically, we ran 51 projects, throughout. And thank you too to my as habitat structures, fences put up varying in scale from instructional colleagues and the WTT trustees for to exclude livestock and fishery days doing good things with being absolute bricks when the yards management improved, with less volunteers through to river were really hard. rigorous tree lopping and fewer fish improvement with big machines. IMAGES stocked. In Hampshire, a WTT site This work included improving visit and report initiated dramatic habitat in a Kent river lacking water, Many of the images in this improvement to the habitat of 2km introduction of gravel and trees to newsletter pre-date the Covid-19 of the River Test in a project delivered improve habitat in Cambridgeshire, pandemic. Since late March, we by the Wessex Rivers Trust, EA and floodplain reconnection in Sussex have applied appropriate Covid WTT, including removal of nine weirs and the easing of fish migration in protocols to our field work, such as limited travel, small practical and bed raising with lots of gravel. Surrey. group sizes, social distancing, Extensive reaches of Yorkshire’s River We also did plenty of spreading personal hygiene and kit Ure and Wharfe have been fenced to of conservation messages, disinfection. exclude livestock, reducing soil input speaking at 30 events to anglers,

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 3 NEWS SNIPPETS

Our offer to host • Trials and triumphs: the state New book by 'virtual' angling club of UK’s rivers Nicolette Scourse AGMs • Fishing for wild trout • Informal question and answer Wildlife Encounters - With no apparent end to the session on things fishy, rivery and/ Southern Seas & Shores. restrictions on physical meetings, or fishing A zoologist’s personal encounters we expect that many angling clubs • A fun quiz for your members, with living diversity, journeying will be thinking about how best to again on things fishy, rivery and/ into animal lives on beaches, cliffs, handle their AGM this year. or fishing. desert and forest shores; in cold We would like to offer angling Contact Christina in the WTT oceans, warm seas and tropical clubs who are WTT members a office ([email protected]) if coral reefs; and in the skies above. hosted ‘Zoom’* meeting for their you would like to use this facility. Whilst the animals take the AGM. This will include a We will need to schedule the date starring roles, human lives, past and presentation or Q&A session with and time slot for the meeting and present, intertwine with theirs as one of our Conservation Officers allocate one of the WTT team to part of this living jigsaw. for 20-30 minutes at the start of be your presenter/ host. Available as both an e-book and the meeting, following which you Once the meeting is scheduled, printed copy, from Amazon and continue to use the Zoom facility we will give you details on how other booksellers. for as long as you need to cover to access it via Zoom which you other agenda items. The WTT CO can pass to your members. Keeping in touch need not be present for the whole Please give us as much notice meeting. as possible! Print and postage is expensive, Our Zoom account allows us to so to keep costs down, we host meetings of any duration for *WHAT IS ZOOM? occasionally email members in up to 100 people. We can record between printed publications Zoom is a very widely used the meeting and send you the file when we have important news or to video conferencing facility (it so that you can load it onto your let you know about an event. can also be audio only) that website, Google drive or wherever If you don’t currently receive emails is accessed by a PC/Mac, phone you wish. from us but would like to do so, or tablet via the internet. We will happily tailor the please contact Christina via office@ Information such as photos, topic of our presentation to wildtrout.org. We also use our PowerPoint slides, spreadsheets your interests, but here are website, Facebook, Twitter and and documents can be shared some examples: Instagram to share news and topics with the participants as well as • The work of the WTT on of interest. Members-only events are discussions, as if you were in a managing and improving communicated via email, and in our room together. river habitat printed publications if time allows.

Signal crayfish impacts on fish is the first study to account and and invertebrates in upland streams effectively control for changes in other parameters that might New research from multiple small nities changed markedly in response influence the results, like habitat upland streams has shown that to signal crayfish invasion, with degradation. It demonstrates that non-native signal crayfish can have sensitive, less-mobile invertebrates widespread and long-term a negative impact on bottom living most affected. The impact upon trout ecological disruption is occurring fish species and invertebrates, is more complex. Salmonid fry in upland streams invaded by signal comparable to more lowland (mostly trout in the study) were crayfish, but that the impacts studies. For example, bullhead significantly less abundant in streams may take many years to be fully appear to have disappeared from with signal crayfish, but larger trout expressed, reflecting the time it takes two study streams invaded by sig- were more abundant in crayfish- for crayfish to fully establish within nal crayfish. Invertebrate commu- invaded streams. Importantly, this streams.

4 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 Sewage, slurry and abstraction Director Shaun Leonard on WTT’s role in these hot topics

t won’t have escaped many Imembers’ notice that rivers have had a lot of media coverage this year, particularly with regard to pollution from sewage and slurry and the impacts of climate change and abstraction in chalkstreams*. You will also have noticed that AIRE RIVERS TRUST Shocking images from recent WTT reports: a Herts river without water, there are many media and lobbying and Combined Sewage Outfalls on the River Aire in Yorkshire campaigns run by organisations and individuals, like the Rivers fighters across the UK and Ireland been abandoned to intensified dairy Trust and Feargal Sharkey. from their very earliest days and do farming and maize production for Where is the WTT in this so still. fodder and biofuel. Channelled river-campaigning world? The Our experience and observations through WTT, this report featured short answer is that we do campaign also feed into WTT responses to in subsequent articles in national for our rivers, but we usually do it many of the snowstorm of newspapers and specialist angling directly to those responsible for Government consultations on magazines. One of our Conservation making change (for example, in matters environmental, most Officers returned to the Axe this England, Defra and the Environment recently EA’s Challenges & Choices summer and reported a river still in Agency (EA)) and by supporting (www.wildtrout.org/news/our- crisis. We’ve relayed these findings grassroots community groups to fight response-to-the-environment- to Defra and EA. See our website for for their river. We generally don’t agencys-water-consultation). In all more detail. campaign in the media, which is very this correspondence, we repeatedly You might not see our name in the capably and expertly done by others. call for more effectivew regulation papers but it is our low key approach Most of our resources are focused and enforcement of the water industry that can make us effective 'behind the on providing practical advice and and agriculture, the two sectors scenes'. You can be assured that we delivering habitat improvement recognised by Government as major care passionately about or rivers and projects and in that role, we put in impactors of our rivers. we take action to try to fix the around 1000 expert man days on the One example of our direct problems that we find. river each year, across much of the campaigning is the case of the now *For a roundup of all the various UK and Ireland, allowing us an infamous Axe Report, published in pollution campaigns, go to the WTT extremely informed perspective on autumn 2019 by the EA, which told a website blog www.wildtrout.org/ the state of many of our rivers. tragic story of how that river had wttblog We use that breadth of view in direct representation to Government WHAT DOES THE WILD TROUT TRUST DO? and its agencies, unilaterally and with other NGOs, with an objective We make rivers fit for trout. We… view based on what we see: many • meet and talk to lots of people with responsibility for or interest in a river; rivers wracked by lack of water, • walk their river with them, explain what we see, identify problems pollution, the dredging bucket and and how they can be tackled; by agriculture. We meet senior • follow up the walk with proposals for projects to improve the river; managers in the regulatory • deliver habitat improvement projects, working with many partners; organisations and provide solid • train people to carry out their own in-river projects by working evidence to the campaigning groups alongside them; • through a variety of media, offer practical and objective information, to support their work. I’d be wary based on direct experience and the latest science; of over-stating WTT’s role, but I • seek to influence national and local policy makers on the protection can say that we’ve been standing and improvement of rivers, lakes and their trout populations. shoulder-to-shoulder with river

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 5 of urban and rural pressures, including road and agricultural runoff, armoured banks, undersized culverts, ornamental weirs, and imminent nearby housing developments. Thanks to very motivated local residents, some of these are already being seriously addressed with extra support from FWAG. Early in the New Year, I spent some time with the rivers team at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, plotting how to improve the River Biss in Trowbridge. Sadly, it’s looking unlikely at present that we’ll achieve our really big ambition to break the river out completely, and replace a huge and ugly car park with a beautiful wetland blue-green space right in front of the town hall. But there’s still a chance that the EA can Cheselbourne replace one of their gauging weirs in Cheselbourne with ultrasonic telemetry instead, making it possible to unlock a problematic impoundment in front From Cheselbourne of the Shires shopping centre, and soften those vertical red brick walls with boulders, gravel, and marginal to Cheddar - with a planting. Watch this space! As lockdown approached in March, I just managed a day walking around North Petherton, identifying fish passage issues and working out how TWIST! the complicated splits of flow really Theo Pike, Trout in the Town’s function in this old milling town. De- man in the South, reports on spite lots of concrete banks and more than a few fish passage barriers, there’s recent times plenty of good gravel and it would be quite a coup to bring wild trout back t’s been a strange but busy year, project - perhaps a sign of the to the Petherton Stream sometime in here on the urban streams of the times, and the innovative nature of the future. south of England. The end of 2109 contemporary urban river projects?). And then it was straight into Isaw a flurry of different activities: November last year took me way lockdown and furlough for most of World Rivers Day with Andy Thomas down south into Dorset to visit a us WTT staff… at the CATCH River and Wildlife Fair stream called the Cheselbourne, in a When the national restrictions in Wincanton; launching the Urban pretty little village of the same name. began to ease and we could start to River Toolkit with Paul Gaskell at our This is a tiny, intriguing chalkstream, think about getting out onto our rivers Urban Conclave in Stalybridge, and one of the headwaters of the Piddle, again, Jonny Muir asked me to join meeting up with Denise Ashton to that now seems to behave much more him for an interview on the Farlows help judge the first Prix Charles like a low-flow winterbourne as a Live platform on Facebook - talking Ritz in the UK (won by the Don result of abstraction. The walkover about urban rivers, Trout in the Town, Catchment Rivers Trust for their revealed that the Cheselbourne is also and especially how the South East Living Heritage of the River Don suffering from a complicated mixture Rivers Trust restored the Hackbridge

6 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 stretch of the Wandle. This is a project which successfully transformed a sluggish, silty over-widened reach into a sparkling, meandering chalkstream again (which is now a favourite spot with local urban trout anglers - in spite of big red buses rumbling past, it’s hard to believe that you’re still in south London, instead of somewhere much more expensive somewhere in Hants or Wilts!). Meanwhile… if you attended the Urban Conclave and saw the launch of WTT’s Trout in the Town Urban River Toolkit, you might remember that Paul and I also announced a new accreditation scheme for all our Trout in the Town chapters. Like so much else this year, this initiative has been held up by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we’ve now sent out accreditation forms to urban river projects all over River Yeo the country. in Cheddar Becoming an accredited chapter means that your group will be (Wincanton) and the Brue CREW developments have inevitably led to officially recognised as part of the (Bruton), and helped with some pilot the usual problems you might expect Trout in the Town movement. When funding from the EA and the with simplified urban river channels, your accreditation is updated on Somerset Catchment Partnership, including rushing rainwater off these the Trout in the Town page of I’m now in the process of scoping out upland areas faster than ever and WTT’s website, you’ll be able to see Trout in the Town-type opportunities making floods even more likely in how you’re progressing, compared in lots of other towns around the Levels. to other similar chapters - and find Somerset too. Like all the best projects, this out which other groups you could Historically, all the rivers which one comes with an acronym: approach to share relevant experience drain the hills in this area (especially Transforming Rivers In Somerset’s and knowledge. And, of course, around the Somerset Levels) have Towns, otherwise known as TWIST. once we’ve heard what stage of been exploited for their water - first Over the next few months, I’ll be development your group has reached, by mills and later by the towns starting this pilot with walkover WTT may be able to offer you even which grew up around them. These surveys in towns like Cheddar, more support to help you grow and Wookey, Wells, Croscombe and develop further. Shepton Mallet - identifying To help you celebrate all this, we’ll challenges and opportunities for send you a special Trout in the Town the future, and supporting wider certificate - detailing First Contact, catchment-scale projects like Hills Bronze, Silver or Gold levels - and a to Levels. I’m also really hoping to matching badge to display on your make contact with local residents website and other promotional who might be interested in riverfly materials. If you haven’t received a monitoring, pollution patrols and form yet, but you’d like to get your other hands-on projects to look after group accredited as an official Trout their rivers. in the Town chapter, please get in To find out more, please do contact touch with me or Paul. me via [email protected]. And, And finally - having been inspired hopefully, 2021 will be much less River Biss in Trowbridge by working with groups like CATCH strange for all of us than 2020…

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 7 News from down South Nick Lawrence, a WTT Conservation Officer in the South, whizzes through one of his projects, on a tributary of the River Test, carried out as this newsletter went to print!

y first day with WTT volunteers socially distanced is hold; but, if there’s the will locally, Minterestingly was the Glorious possible. Personally, I am just glad we’ll try for this next autumn. Twelfth, August 2019 and that day I to be back doing the job I love after The main aim of the project this met my colleague, Andy Thomas, on 3 months of furlough and not a lot’s year refocused on creating deep- the Pillhill Brook in my home village changed job-wise: I still go and meet water refuges for adult trout, by of Abbotts Ann in Hampshire; we many clients to undertake advisory dropping in wood and pool-and-run were sizing up a piece of work for the visits on their riverbanks and I still creation (also called ‘dig-and-dump’). Heritage Lottery-funded Watercress & work from home as I always have. Five pool-and-run features will give Winterbournes Project (W&W), led The WTT model works really well in big fish more varied habitat, and a by the Hants & IOW Wildlife Trust. our new, homeworking world. bolthole in the low flow conditions W&W is a five-year Landscape Meanwhile, back at the Pillhill we are seeing all too frequently. In Partnership Scheme that brings Brook. So, after my first-ever day addition to improving the in-river together local communities and 16 with WTT, I designed a project that habitat, two new cattle drinking bays organisations (including WTT) to could be delivered under the banner were constructed to water livestock restore and celebrate seven iconic of the W&W, its first practical project away from and reduce mud run-off chalkstreams: the Bourne Rivulet, off the mark. This was all part of into this small, fragile brook. Candover Brook, Cheriton Stream, my learning curve as a Conservation All done now: the project lasted a Pillhill Brook, River Arle, Upper Officer; coming from a practical week, completed in good time. We Anton, and Upper Test. background delivering projects were ably assisted by the now go-to So, to be writing this today was easy but designing and the team of local, specialist contractors: with the project just complete and maze of official permitting was… my thanks to Rob Hilary, Oliver a little over a year later is quite a challenging. After wading through Shuldham and Max Hardman, helped moment. There has been a lot of the paperwork and the various by willing WTT members, Martin water under the bridge (excuse the engagement processes, I finally had “Donny” Donovan and Rich Baker. pun) personally and professionally. a project to deliver. Then, Covid hit, Well done, lads. Covid-19 has changed our lives putting everything into a spin. The W&W is at the start of a 5-year forever but luckily delivering projects project was due to be larger but again journey during which, hopefully, in a Covid-secure way is not that due to Covid, some of the community these small chalkstreams will get difficult - working outside and with engagement, using groups of some of the care and attention they like-minded professionals and volunteers in the river, was put on deserve.

Left. Rob sculpting out the finishing touches on cattle drinking bays, connected to the river through a twin-walled pipe Right. Oliver and Max hinging in some large woody material

8 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 Above. One of the finished pool-and-runs, woody material and bed excavations helping to form the flume in the neck of the pool and gravel on the tail. Another lovely location under a hawthorn bush and undercut bank Right. Andy Thomas supervising the first pool-and-run creation in a tight shady spot, the perfect location for a trout bolthole

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 9 News from the Midlands and Lincolnshire Tim Jacklin, Wild Trout Trust Conservation Officer for the Midlands

Floods help salmon travel 160 miles up the River Dove he floods of last winter seem Ta distant memory given subsequent events, but they had a significant impact on project delivery, not to mention the misery inflicted on homeowners directly affected. Not only were record highs reached (no less than six times on my local River Dove), but water levels remained elevated for weeks on end. One unexpected silver lining arising from this was the ‘drowning out’ of many weirs which are normally barriers to fish, right at the time trout and salmon were making their spawning migrations. This was brought home to me personally when a 6lb cock capture, Tim immediately released this On the Derbyshire Derwent, salmon took a fancy to my grayling fish. There’s extraordinary romance in two exciting projects have been nymph during a rare lull in levels this event - Tim has spent most of his developed on the River Ecclesbourne: on the River Dove in January. By 28-year professional fisheries life, with one to remove a weir and the other river, this fish was about 160 miles the EA and then WTT, sorting the to restore the channel back to its from the sea, by far the furthest free movement of fish in the Trent former course, bypassing another upstream-salmon recorded (to my catchment. How fitting, then, that weir. Together these will connect knowledge) in the Trent catchment he should meet this salmon so far up 20km of tributary habitat to the since efforts began to restore the river. Derwent, opening the door to the species in the 1990s. 14 species of fish found downstream This fish had crossed at least nine Weirs in Derbyshire - balancing (including returning salmon) weirs on the Trent and a further ten fish passage and heritage compared to the six found upstream. on the River Dove; of the latter, interests WTT has recently submitted a £200K only the downstream four have fish I have been working with the EA on a bid to the Green Recovery Challenge passage improvements. Of course, number of fish passage improvement Fund to deliver the weir removal in the coincidence of ‘freak’ water projects on a range of rivers. The six 2021, so fingers crossed! levels and migration times cannot unimproved weirs on the main stem On the main stem of the Derwent, be relied upon to sustain migratory of the Dove have been a focus of above the Ecclesbourne confluence, fish populations - access is needed attention, with baseline information we are involved in a project looking whatever the flow. The presence or being collected on topography, water at the weirs at Milford. This is one absence of salmon is an obvious levels, flow modelling, ownership of a number of sites along the river indicator of this, but it plays out on and heritage interest - essential within the Derwent Valley Mills lesser geographical scales for many information to assist in developing World Heritage Site, where water species, with healthy wild trout future projects. Unfortunately, the power was first successfully harnessed and grayling populations reliant on most advanced of these sites has for textile production during the well-connected habitats. stalled, as agreement cannot currently Industrial Revolution. Preserving Obviously, being an out-of-season be reached with the weir owner. and protecting the significant

10 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 Snake Lane weir on the River Ecclesbourne, built during a 1970s flood relief scheme. If you wanted to design the ultimate barrier to fish migration, this would come pretty close! historical importance of the weir being trout frequently recorded forming a step and a barrier to fish structures whilst improving fish during fishery surveys of the migration. Could this be the reason passage presents a complex challenge downstream Barlings Eau, they have trout had not recolonised the Beck? but is also an opportunity to weave not been found in the Welton Beck Over the following years, there the natural history of the river into since the drought. were two unsuccessful attempts the narrative. During a WTT walkover of the to address this problem. The first Beck in 2013, a poorly constructed was the raising of the downstream Bringing trout back to culvert was observed close to the bed level with gravels sourced Welton in Lincolnshire confluence with the Barlings Eau. from maintenance of a nearby Between the floods and the The culvert pipe had been set too lockdown, I managed to slot in high and scouring flows had left it One of the three weirs at Milford a more straightforward project ‘perched’ above riverbed level, on the Derbyshire Derwent on the Welton Beck, a spring-fed stream running off limestone geology to the north-east of Lincoln. Although it has excellent, calcium-rich water quality, in common with most watercourses in the county, it has been heavily modified and maintained for land drainage and habitat is relatively poor. About a decade ago, the upper reaches of the Beck dried up during drought conditions and the fish, including trout, were lost. The event is still remembered by residents in the village of Welton and despite there

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 11 EA flow-gauging station; unfortunately, these were quickly scoured away, taking us back to square one. Next, two notched log ‘weirs’ (so-called pre-barrages) were constructed downstream to raise water levels within the culvert, but these too were carried away by high water. So, third time lucky, we embarked on doing a ‘proper job’. Levels were taken, designs drawn, permits secured and quantities estimated. In early February, three stone ‘riffles’ were constructed in the 100m section of the Beck downstream of the culvert, raising the water level enough to allow fish passage and Before - getting the levels right, downstream of the perched culvert gently stepping-down the riverbed gradient. We will be keeping our eyes peeled for trout returning upstream. Many thanks to project partners Blankney Estates and the Environment Agency.

Reconnecting rivers to floodplains in Lincolnshire Elsewhere in Lincolnshire, we have been working on two floodplain reconnection projects, one on the Dunston Beck (a tributary of the lower Witham) and one on the upper Witham, near Grantham. Both have trout populations but poor instream habitat resulting Above. During - the first rock riffle being constructed from past channel straightening, Below. After - three riffles and free passage through the culvert bed lowering and dredging. The plans involve removing redundant floodbanks and lowering the valley floor alongside the river to re-create natural floodplain habitat. In addition to providing a more benign flow regime within the river, the schemes have benefits for riparian habitat and flood storage. So far, both projects have involved the ‘hard yards’ of topographical surveys, flow modelling, design, landowner liaison, archaeology and biodiversity surveys, consent applications and sourcing funding but with a fair wind the ‘easy’ bit with the big yellow machines should take place in 2021!

12 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 News from Cornwall Bruno Vincent, our Fundraising Events Officer, reflects on his first year with WTT

y first year in the saddle Mwith WTT and that year had to be 2020! Apocalyptic weather and my main task of auction planning kept me firmly off the river through the winter months and into spring. But spring with the arrival of fair weather, new shoots and birdsong were all appreciated by the keen senses lockdown life gave me. Considering the life I lead, I live WTT new look logo - a cleaner, more modern touch for a new decade all too far away from an actual river, though the mouth of the Tamar is on my doorstep. Confinement to an The challenge of the globe were kindly donated as were hour’s exercise a day became more 2020 Get-Together existing films and clips from closer silviological than anything of a fluvial After 20 years of annual members’ to home. I even got in front of the nature, as I walked the local woods. gatherings around the country, we camera for a change. Plenty to soothe and nourish the had grand plans of an early visit to the One hopes that meeting for the mind, but no match to watching the Usk to catch the March brown hatch. March brown hatch on the Usk first rise forms of the new season. The looming threat of pandemic is achievable in 2021 but as with The success of the auction in earlier in the year shifted us toward everything, the future is anything but late March buoyed the spirits. The a daddy fall event in September. But certain. One way or another, I feel the auction is a vital part of our funding, as the infection curve spiked, like ‘virtual’ format is a good one to evolve enabling us to improve rivers for the flow-gauges had done all winter, further, year-on-year. trout. Members and non-members it became clear that convening Now my first year has drawn to a alike bid freely to secure lots. Lots that members from across the land would close and my sights are fixed again on no soothsayer could predict when be irresponsible if not actually the auction and a little West Country they might be redeemed. Such dangerous. conservation. generosity from donors and bidders in In its place, a plan was hatched For those who are kind enough to such challenging times was to host the Get-Together virtually, a donate lots to the auction, you will overwhelming, I hope you have all 5-hour rivers, fish and conservation no doubt hear from me soon; we’ll been thanked enough. If not, thank TV show to ‘watch together’ instead. be looking too to add fresh, new lots. you… In all, this probably took three Should you have some fishing, a rare months to produce, with talent and book, rod, box of flies or anything else A new look for WTT’s logo time volunteered from all angles. you’d like to contribute to our charity With the launch of the auction at Vice-President Matthew Wright held auction, please feel free to drop me a the beginning of the year, it seemed the day together with pre-recorded line via: [email protected]. a good opportunity to take a look at segues and introductions - quite a branding that had served us well for challenge as the links were filmed WTT AUCTION decades; I’ve looked to bring a little weeks before some films had even The 2021 WTT Auction takes more life and vigour to our figurehead been conceived. FishingTV kindly place 19-28 March. We’ll distribute trout. To put a spring in its step and a agreed to host the stream so it could more information through the glint in its eye, to symbolise the hope be watched by all at the same time. winter on the WTT website, by we all have for a prosperous future, Something that perhaps mismatched email and on social media. The not only for trout but all our rivers with a few members’ diaries but gave catalogue will be posted to as a whole. Hopefully, you can still us a chance to enjoy something members in February along with recognise us but with a cleaner, more together, wherever we all were. the Spring News Update. modern touch for a new decade. Documentaries from across the

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 13 Nowhere for the grown-ups! Andy Thomas, WTT Conservation Officer, explains why some sections of rivers lack trout holding pools and why this is not always a bad thing

n top of all the requests we have to be aware that deeper pool Oreceive for advisory visits, habitats on some systems are project proposals and practical visits, naturally restricted by the local we also get lots of questions and geology and it really isn’t possible, general enquiries about all manner or even appropriate, to create of trouty- and river-related topics. deep-water lies. If you can imagine I recently received an email from a river valley consisting of a very nice chap who had invested in comparatively thin, friable soils a day’s fishing on a beat of the upper overlying mainly flat, impervious Exe. My correspondent felt that the bedrock, then that river is likely to beat might have habitat issues that have long, wide, shallow sections the fishery managers could address, with very few pools, even more so in particular the lack of deep water if the riverbanks are heavily grazed suitable for holding adult trout: a and lacking in significant tree cover. reasonable view given that the reach Plonk in a large piece of wood, or was being sold to visiting rods as a as Charles Rangeley-Wilson calls it, viable day ticket fishery! “confrontational” woody material, The topic of what might be an and there is a chance that some appropriate intervention to create water will be partially backed optimum lies for adult trout, is one up, potentially providing those that pops up time and again during much sought-after deeper holding What, no pools? our travels undertaking advisory areas. visits for landowners and fishing Woody material placed in a clubs. It is a moot point but it channel formed on hard bedrock is flow over a geology that can naturally sometimes seems a little unfair if not going to promote the naturally erode. Often the reason why deeper beat owner A has a reach that only scoured pools that might otherwise pools do not form naturally on some supports long, shallow glides and develop in a river flowing over softer of these reaches, is because they are riffle habitat that might be deemed material such as (for example) chalk close to the top of the river system 5-star spawning and juvenile habitat or limestone, which can and does where significant flow power is rarely by us trout boffs if there is no bar erode. Fortunately, many of the rivers achieved, or where the gradient is (pool) for the adults to hang out! flowing over hard rock geology are minimal, or possibly impounded Owner B, who has the beat blessed with natural breaks and lines behind a weir. All these factors immediately downstream, may of weakness where pools can develop. can rob the river of the flow power well benefit from that high quality Even on rivers that are comparatively required to bite on a fallen tree trunk upstream habitat as the growing trout shallow, adult trout will hold and and blow out the riverbed to create a redistribute seeking more suitable thrive provided there are complex new pool. lies, particularly if that beat is blessed flow patterns, proximity to cover such On reaches like this, digging a pool with deeper, well covered glides or as tree roots and the all-important on its own is unsustainable. Unless complex holding pools. So, what do food conveyer belt. it is carefully designed to ensure we make of situations like this? In order to provide enhanced lies that fast flows are generated via a As fishery managers and as for adult trout, we can and do lower constricted pool ‘neck’ that continue potential ticket-buying rods, we the riverbed, but only on rivers that through the heart of the pool, it will

14 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 just fill up with silt and gravel, Making sure our river habitat is joined up and not even more so following a drier than average season. fragmented with difficult man-made structures As anglers visiting an ensures that fish quickly redistribute once nature unfamiliar spate river, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise if some beats are turns the taps back on exceptionally shallow, especially if difficult man-made structures ensures back-to-back pools is always going to that visit coincides with a late that fish quickly redistribute once outperform the river with only one summer holiday, when any lift of nature turns the taps back on. shallow pool every half a mile or so. flow from shallow springs or valley As anglers, our eyes are keenly Andy has been, and is still, busy on mires and wetlands has long since tuned to what might be attractive projects. A write-up of one of his recent dried up. On such systems, the fish holding water for a big fat trout, but projects on the River Rother at West can often cope better than the angler we should never lose sight of how Sussex is now on the WTT website: and this is where local adaptations valuable long, shallow riffles and www.wildtrout.org/content/river- within the fish population are very glides really are. These areas are rother-project. He is currently working important, with fish locally migrating the nurseries and the pantries for on a project on the Eridge Stream in into known refuge areas during low any healthy river ecosystem and we Kent which will appear as a news item flows. Making sure our river habitat mustn’t be fooled into thinking that on our website and social media in is joined up and not fragmented with a river that is lined with enticing due course.

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 15 Love ,em or loathe ,em, we now need to learn to live with beavers Denise Ashton reflects on trout, rivers and beaver reintroduction to England

ollowing a five-year study been greeted with delight in some damage to banks where beavers Fon the River Otter, Defra has quarters and concern in others. burrow, barriers to fish migration announced that beavers on the Beavers are described as ‘ecosystem from dam building and increased Otter are to remain living wild engineers’ because of the way they water temperatures in the ponds and be allowed to spread naturally. change their habitat by building above beaver dams. The ‘pro beaver’ With a conservative estimate of at dams and tunnels, cutting down trees, community argue that these issues least 200 beavers already living wild creating wetlands and wet woodland can be managed with appropriate in rivers in England, and at least habitat. Many of these activities are interventions, from dam notching and nine licensed and enclosed groups, a net benefit to the environment - removal up to and including lethal it seems that beavers are here to stay. increasing biodiversity, ‘slowing control. This is what happens in Europe The Wild Trout Trust now has to the flow’, capturing sediment and where beaver introductions started to devise a policy that best lets us do improving water quality are just a take place over 50 years ago. A good our job and create river habitat where few of the oft quoted benefits. summary of the experience of beaver trout and other salmonids can survive Concern is expressed by some introductions in Europe is that for 10 and thrive. anglers, farmers and landowners years no one notices them, for 10 years The introduction of beavers in who are likely to have issues with they cause problems and issues and England, both legal and illegal, has flooding, damage to crops and trees, after that, people learn to live with them.

16 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 BEAVERS AND TROUT Beavers and salmonids have evolved farmland and flood banks and don’t together. In some places, such have the space to respond naturally as western Canada, their beaver to beaver dam building or wetland species is seen as an important creation, so the issues they create factor in helping increase have to be managed. Experience populations of salmonids. elsewhere in Europe shows that The science suggests that is expensive. beavers are not wholly bad or The changes people have made wholly good for trout, their effect to rivers have resulted in more changing in space and time. So fragile populations of trout and why are we concerned about salmon. Half of the sea trout rivers the potential impact of beavers and most of the salmon rivers in on trout? England are ‘at risk’. In many rivers, Rivers and their catchments salmonid populations may not be have changed out of all recognition robust enough to withstand the since beavers became extinct in additional pressure that beavers England. Almost all our rivers have could represent. been hugely modified by man: Before beavers are introduced dredged, straightened, fragmented to a catchment, there needs to by mills, bankside trees removed, be careful assessment of the disconnected from floodplains by likely benefits and impacts with artificial bunds, abstracted and funded beaver plans, but most polluted. This means they don’t importantly, work is needed to function as they did in the year make rivers fit for beavers 1500. Most rivers are now (and trout) before they become constrained by infrastructure, widespread. DAVID WHITE DAVID

Prof Jonny Grey’s review of the shrubby buffer zones on both banks exacerbate fish passage issues as published research on beaver/trout of the river will provide food and well as damaging infrastructure; interactions shows that beavers are habitat for beavers and allow the river for example, road culverts can be not wholly bad or wholly good for to create natural bypass channels blocked by beaver dams, damaging trout. Over the past few months we around dams which will limit the and undermining roads or causing have spoken to people with direct barriers to fish passage. Buffer zones flooding. Making rivers fit for experience of beavers in Scotland, also provide a host of other benefits: beavers will have huge benefits for Switzerland, Canada and on the River more wildlife habitat, carbon trout, beavers and all wildlife. The Otter, read many articles and spoken sequestration, shade to keep public support for beavers is an to many people with diverse views. rivers cool, flood management opportunity that we want to take for A common theme is that people and sediment capture. Anglers and the benefit of our beloved trout. We divide into ‘beaver believers’ and other water users should value the believe that we should invest now ‘sceptics’ and that view frames their space created between agriculture in our rivers to make them fit for perception of the evidence. We have (for example) and the riverbank. beavers and reduce the costs of future endeavoured to go back to the base Farmers and landowners could management. This is why we have data of some studies (we are lucky be paid to create such buffer zones chosen to engage with the discussions to have some expert scientists on under the Environmental Land about beaver introductions, to our team) and check the published Management Scheme (ELMS) explain and educate about the conclusions and summaries. which will come into effect in potential impacts on trout and to 2024, replacing the CAP subsidies. gain widespread support for making Make rivers fit for beavers - The other key change to make rivers fit for beavers. and trout! rivers fit for beavers and trout is Of necessity, this is article is an We want to see rivers made fit for the removal of weirs and culverts overview; for more information, go beavers before more are released into so that fish passage is improved. to the beaver page in the ‘Library’ the wild. Beavers will often build their dams section of our website: https://www. For example, 10m wooded or against existing structures and wildtrout.org/content/beavers

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 17 News from the far north Gareth Pedley, Wild Trout Trust Conservation Officer for the North

his is a great opportunity to with several obstructions and serious Based on experience elsewhere Tremind myself and all of you water quality issues remaining, but from friends of WTT within the what I’ve been up to, and to assure also that the river does have areas EA, Rivers Trusts and other you that I don’t spend all of my time with great potential (see photos). conservation organisations, we staring at trout! Such walkovers serve to highlight showed that similar weir removals So, in addition to the day-to-day and target improvement efforts of have been undertaken for less than site visits, presentations and general the EA and local industry and 25% of the consultant’s estimated advice, here’s a few snippets from my provide a reminder that there is costs, so we hope that removal will year so far. hope even in the worst areas of most now be the route taken.

High-quality habitat in the upper Team catchment Foul water discharge to the middle R. Team

Helping the River Team catchments. Funding has now also The second weir simply cannot recover from a troubled been confirmed to undertake further be removed due to navigation past walkovers on the remaining areas of requirements, so the task was to Early in the year, I undertook a suite the catchment. take a fresh look at the site and at of walkovers for the Environment previous feasibility studies to Agency to assess areas on the Weir removal options suggest a preferred option. In River Team, an often overlooked As soon as lockdown restrictions this case, a suitable solution had and neglected tributary of the River permitted, I carried out two fish been identified in the form of a Tyne, near Newcastle: you may passage assessments and feasibility large-scale rock ramp that could know the Team as it flows through studies in the Midlands for the EA. facilitate passage for a wide range Beamish open-air museum in Co Both had previously been assessed by of species in the broadest range Durham. Historically blighted by commercial consultants but progress of flows. Naturalistic rock ramps poor water quality, primarily from had stalled due to a lack of support (or similar structures) are invariably mining and domestic waste, this poor for a preferred option. The first was the best solution where removal river was incapable of supporting a large, redundant gauging weir is not possible and are becoming fish in most areas until several recent (already replaced by hydroacoustic increasingly popular in forward- initiatives started to improve the gauging) that had been highlighted thinking countries around Europe. situation. for removal, but other options were It is to be hoped that our involvement However, the walkovers revealed under consideration due to very high in these projects will provide the that there is still a long way to go, cost estimates. support to reinvigorate major fish

18 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 Left. Channel excavation on Black Beck

Right. Improved track and hard- standing over one of the replaced culverts. This area was a quagmire and inputting significant volumes of fine sediment to the watercourse

Below. Part of the restored Black Beck section with ~50% of the flow migrated over. Late-season reseeding (well into September) paid dividends in helping to consolidate areas of bare earth

passage improvements on both and restoration of >250m of the opportunity to disperse upstream the River Trent and lower River watercourse to a more natural, sinu- and downstream (and into the Derwent. ous channel. restored reach). We had allowed for Rather than a rapid, 100% possible fish rescues and they will Repairing the Black Beck switching of flow from the straight- be undertaken if necessary, but it One of my major pieces of work was ened channel to the restored reach, looks like they’ll not be needed. a habitat improvement project with, flow has been allowed to naturally This largely experimental approach and funded by, the EA on Black Beck break through a small gravel bund (in the UK) is already working well which is a small tributary of the River (retained at the upstream end of and certainly appears to be mitigating Ehen in west Cumbria. WTT the restored reach) as the beck level the unavoidable fine sediment inputs assessments back in 2018 and 2019 rises following rain. This means that that occur as a new channel is highlighted issues of diffuse pollution, the flow gradually increases within reconnected, particularly at low barriers, and channel realignments on the restored channel over time, flows. I’m regularly revisiting the what should be a valuable spawning ensuring a good dilution of any fine site to monitor progress, making any tributary. This catalysed a project sediment at the downstream end adjustments as required. We’ve now to address the worst aspects, including where it reconnects to the existing put some woody material into the replacement of two undersized pipe stream. This method also ensures straightened channel to reduce its culverts with bigger, partially sunken that de-watering of the abandoned, capacity and accelerate the flow pipes, installation of hard standing straightened course is gradual, migration over into the restored around two problem field gates, allowing fish and invertebrates the reach.

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 19 These small tributaries are Trout travellers vulnerable to drought and to hot summers which can cause water WTT's Denise Ashton reflects... temperatures to become uncomfortable for the young fish. Shade from trees and overhanging etting to know where the big An 84km ‘in-river’ migration vegetation is even more vital to Gtrout lie in your local river is The in-river migration that really small streams with limited or no one of the joys of regularly walking brought this home (oops… deep pools than it is to main rivers, or fishing the same water. A good unintended pun) to the WTT where deep pools provide a cool- fishing friend of mine usually has one team was research on the River water refuge. or two in his sights (“I know where Deveron in Scotland in 2014. These you live” is the muttered threat) and fish have historically been thought runs season-long campaigns to catch of as sea trout; however, analysis of them. We tend to think that it is the scales suggested that they are more same trout occupying that lie from likely to be fast growing brown trout, year to year, and sometimes we have so a collaborative project using evidence from multiple captures and acoustic tags set out to track a recognition of spots or scars that it bunch of fish. The results were is, indeed, the same fish. However, I incredible: the tagged trout migrated also wonder if what we have tuned up and down the river over a much into is not so much that one big trout, wider range than expected. One but a place where a big trout will 55cm, wandering hen fish recorded a lie; perhaps the big old trout will be remarkable journey, migrating 84km displaced by a younger, but equally from the Blackwater to Montcoffer, big, specimen at some point? Pure nearly at the mouth of the Deveron, speculation, though we do think within a month of being tagged. It this happens in the hierarchical is thought that this errant female lives of wild trout. One thing migrated downstream (but not to sea) that we do know from research, for richer feeding and then returned however, is that some (maybe to spawn. many) trout travel about more than many of us anglers might The importance of think. small tributaries People tend to use the term Tributaries as small as a metre ‘migration’ (or ‘migratory trout’) wide are used for spawning and as when referring to sea trout, moving nurseries for young trout. It is easy upstream to spawn as adults and to ignore these tiny streams, but downstream to the sea or estuary they are absolutely vital to a healthy as smolts (tail first and in shoals, trout population. On my local river, bizarrely) and post-spawning adults the Usk, research has shown that the Lake ‘resident’ trout (kelts). But, all trout migrate at some majority of the trout in the tributary It is generally thought that adult trout point in their lives; the distance streams sampled were less than two in lakes migrate to spawn in either migrated may vary from a few years old and that 3 year old fish inlet or outlet streams. This choice of metres to many kilometres, with fish migrated to the main river in April different spawning habitats can lead moving to spawn, to find different and May - just as sea trout smolts to differentiation between strains or territories as they grow, to take migrate to sea at that time of year. even species of trout, the most famous advantage of richer pickings if food The smaller the stream, the example of which is the sonaghan and at home is scarce and maybe even to younger the trout, so it appears gillaroo trout of Lough Melvin which escape a shrinking river. ‘Resident’ that trout gradually move down- are distinct in their feeding habi- trout are resident in a river in much stream as they age and grow (see tats and appearance and also their the same way as we are ‘resident’ in Small Streams Are Beautiful by Guy spawning locations. Gillaroo spawn the UK & Ireland, rather than at a Mawle, Salmo Trutta, volume 16, in the outflow streams, sonaghan in particular address. 2013). the inflowing streams. Streams are

20 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 the spawning and nursery habitat for and South America. Other trout Recently, research has shown that many lakes, with adults living in the benefit from shorter distance assisted the eggs of some fish species can lake. The adults may be very small migrations. There is a tradition in survive through the digestive if the lake is poor in nutrients, but one Scottish fishing hotel of anglers tract of birds, emerge in bird if they have lost their parr marks occasionally taking a bucket in the droppings and successfully hatch, (blueish ‘thumbprints’ on the flanks) boat, not to bail out the water but albeit in very low numbers; sadly in then they are adults. so that they may ‘assist’ the transfer one way, the research was not in the However, trout in lakes might also of trout from one loch to an UK and not about trout, so we will spawn in the lake margins, using apparently trout-free loch. As many continue to speculate how trout whatever there is on the lake bed to anglers come back year after year, appear in unusual places. incubate their eggs. Our President, they can visit their newly populated Unimpeded migration is critical! Migration is critical to all trout, but actually all fish (and many invertebrates) migrate, more or less. That’s why, then, many river conservation organisations, like WTT, spend a lot of time trying to improve ‘connectivity’ in rivers by removing man-made barriers such as weirs and culverts. Even where these barriers are seemingly passable, they can slow down migration and make trout (and many other species) vulnerable to predators, including fish eating birds and anglers, as they hesitate and hold in pools above and below barriers. In one study on the Tweed a decade ago, over 80% of a batch of tagged, down- stream-migrating sea trout smolts vanished at one weir! Recent and ongoing work there and elsewhere in Scotland is suggesting that around half of salmon smolts are lost during their freshwater migration, often disappearing above weirs.

PAUL PROCTOR PAUL It is believed that predation, especially by fish-eating birds, is a Jon Beer, recorded a video for us in loch and see how the migrants big part of the problem. There are, which he talks so interestingly about are enjoying (or not) their new of course, natural barriers such as lake trout spawning - see the WTT environment. waterfalls and beaver dams, but man You Tube channel (https://www.you- How did trout get to remote has increased the numbers of barriers tube.com/user/WildTroutTrust); he mountain lakes with no apparent enormously to the point where trout will also write an article for us on this inlet or outlet stream, just a boggy populations, which have evolved on topic in Salmo Trutta 2021. margin? A man with a bucket is often the basis of largely free migration, the answer, and if there is a history of are struggling. Assisted migration mining or other human activity, those A full understanding of just how Some trout ‘benefit’ from ‘assisted fish might have been stocked for food vital migration is to all trout is migration’ from man, at a variety of in the distant past. Speculation that incredibly important if we are to scales. In Victorian times, trout eggs trout eggs or fry may be arriving on assess trout habitat, what might be were transported all over the world, the feet of birds such as herons is one impacting it and how we can improve enabling trout to colonise entirely theory or perhaps vomited by fish it. Now, where do we keep the new territories such as New Zealand eating birds travelling between lakes. Semtex ……?

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 21 An alder felled and wedged between two living trunks, rather than cabled, to prevent repositioning. R Washburn News from Yorkshire Jonathan Grey, Research & Conservation Officer North

‘Proper wood’ in the Washburn Historic coppicing of alder along Stream and the Upper Aire the boulder revetment banks meant s I typed this article, the tail end there were plenty of multi-stemmed Aof Storm Alex was just flushing trees where I could sacrifice one or through the local becks and rivers, two trunks and not detract from and that water was encountering a the equally important aspect of plethora of new ‘challenges’ placed riparian shade. Perfect. Coppiced before it. Several larger projects have alder bounces back with fantastic kept me busy in the post-furlough low, reinvigorated growth, plus period until the trout spawning nodules on alder roots harbour window and end of in-river work atmospheric nitrogen-fixing bacteria (which for me is at the beginning that help to make the leaf litter from of October), and they have mostly alder some of the most palatable channel will, amongst other benefits, involved putting wood in the river. to macroinvertebrates. My proposal help to retain leaf litter, force the Proper wood. involved installing 15 ‘tree-kickers’ - water down and/or around thereby I say that because, in the hinging or completely felling diversifying river depth profiles and Yorkshire Dales, it’s not that easy suitably large trunks and full provide refuges from spate flow and to find decent-sized wood to drop crowns to fall into the channel predators. Another key aspect of the into rivers to make a big difference, (also known as ‘chop’n’drop’). proposal was the relatively high but I’ve managed it finally. The first In some instances, we winched density of kickers, to repeatedly opportunity came about on the the trunks back to lie parallel to the interrupt the flow and make the River Washburn, a Wharfe tributary. bank (within the river) and in others, water work to get past structure after Yorkshire Water brought me in to the trunk remained at bank height structure in quick succession, which advise on some habitat restoration while the crown rested in the water, should create lots of substrate and options on a formerly straightened simulating natural wood fall that depth diversity. reach of the Washburn, upstream of unfortunately has been ‘tidied up’ I’ve been undertaking similar work, Lindley Wood reservoir near Otley. for decades. All that structure in the albeit at diminishing scale, on two

22 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 WHY DO WE PUT TREES IN RIVERS? Trees and branches in the river channel are vital habitat because they:

• Help the river to scour its bed, which creates pools and releases fresh gravel for spawning;

• Provide a bolthole for trout to escape from predators;

• Can be used deflect flow and protect banks from erosion;

• Supply food for detritus-eating invertebrates such as caddis and gammarus;

• Trap sediment, which helps keeps gravel clean and provides habitat for burrowing invertebrates such as mayfly;

Woody material in rivers is often removed because it is thought to be a flood risk and so that it looks ‘tidy’. We assess the flood A coppiced alder on Otterburn Beck, R Aire, laid risk and secure material if into the channel to divert the flow and promote necessary, and ‘messy’ is the deposition of a point bar downstream really good for trout! smaller becks as part of WTT’s Monitoring trout populations has been exciting and disappointing contribution to the Upper Aire before and after our habitat in perhaps equal measures to survey Land Management Project. projects more becks and gain a better My involvement is to kick-start I’ve started a Yorkshire Water- understanding of trout populations in-channel restoration and funded project, TROUT (Tackling on my patch. reinvigorate natural processes in Resilience On Under-performing OK, some have been desperately areas that other partners (the EA Tributaries), to work with volunteers disappointing! Consider a particular and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust) have to improve habitat on nine Yorkshire reach of a crystal-clear, cool, already tried to reduce diffuse becks. We’ve been extremely busy spring-fed beck flowing from agricultural pollution by excluding in the pre-works monitoring phase, limestone that I found to have lower livestock and creating buffer strips. establishing baselines of fish trout biomass and poorer population The trees I can work with on some populations prior to any work structure (in terms of age cohorts) of these plots are only 8 years old but commencing. Many members will than the Bradford Beck next to can still be put to good effect in a be aware of some of the project Shipley station which had its fish channel relatively devoid of character. monitoring that I have in place; it population virtually eradicated by

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 23 Sparkly gravel, still retained in Dauber Gill, and clearly used to good effect by the locals… an acute pollution event (on top of chronic pollutants) 18 months ago! Bradford Beck has already had a helping hand. Together with the EA, Bradford Council and Friends of Bradford Becks, I designed and installed fish passage easements on several weirs that appear to have boosted recovery. The historical straightening and ensuing bank baldness from huge herds of ‘wooldebeest’ (or sheep, as they downstream on the Nidd, recorded Numbers of brown trout of are generally known) on the poor its highest-ever gauge levels in different sizes caught by limestone beck are to be tackled February for three weekends on the electrofishing in Dauber Gill, as part of TROUT this winter and trot. Even I had some nagging doubts Nidderdale, pre (2019) and post spring of 2021. as to whether we would actually (2020) addition of spawning gravel To counter the above and see any of the materials we put in demonstrate what can be achieved the beck, ever again, let alone any sufficient in key areas to boost on these underperforming becks, an positive results from our work. production. Even if we lost gravel exciting result has emerged from the However, when we came to from the beck, it was probably adding gravel addition trial on Dauber Gill electric-fish the beck, we were benefit in the main river which has with Nidderdale Angling Club delighted to find almost double been starved of gravel for the past (outlined in the Newsletter this the number of fat, young-of-year 100 years due to the construction time last year). To recap briefly, we trout; this in a year when almost of Gouthwaite Reservoir. For good installed woody deflectors to retain every other survey site with a decent measure, we’ve topped up with and sort 25 tonnes of gravel that was time-series of data revealed negligible another 25 tonnes! This site has also added as part of an EA Fishery population change between 2019 and been taken up within TROUT and Improvement Programme grant. 2020. Of course, we lost some gravel hence I can continue to monitor To put the following results into a downstream. Indeed, I guestimate developments for at least the next broader context, Pateley Bridge, just we lost 70%, but we clearly retained 5 years; I’ll keep you posted.

24 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 News from the East of England Rob Mungovan, Wild Trout Trust Conservation Officer for the East

othing has been quite normal avoid the issues of volunteers trying flooded off and then postponed due Nthis spring and summer. I was to maintain social distancing while to COVID-19. Once materials and a lucky as I had work that I could working in tight confinement in the team had been pulled together, doing do, but even making plans for river, I used my local contacts to the work over 3 days was the easier relatively low-budget projects still pull together a small delivery team part, installing 70m of faggot ledges felt as if everything could fall apart involving a grab lorry, an excavator, to retain spoil resulting from a bank at very short notice; for anyone still and a single labourer. The result re-grade. This latest phase of work worried or battling to keep work, was a chalkstream brought back on the Great Ouse is part of the you have my sympathy. out of the silt, with new gravel that EA’s larger scheme to deliver will hugely increase the spawning habitat restoration to aid the river’s Gravel in the River Mel opportunities for the river’s recovery following two devastating I came out of furlough at the start struggling trout population. This pollution events. Many species of of June and was able to jump straight part of the Mel alongside Melbourn’s fish were lost but those remaining into the River Mel. I’ve worked playing fields is something to be in the tributary streams, including alongside the River Mel Restoration proud of once again and has fired brown trout, should establish new Group for many years, providing me up to continue the process along populations in the main river over support for improvement of this little the rest of the playing fields so that the coming years. The spawning Cambridgeshire chalkstream. The children (and trout!) can enjoy a riffles installed last September have latest phase of work, supported by clean stream once again. remained in place even after months The Technology Partnership (TTP of high water, which just goes to show PLC), was supposed to involve Aiding recovery from that if you work with a river and put volunteers working with me to place pollution on the Great Ouse the right features in the right place, 80 tonnes of mixed-grade gravel My next project was to return to it will accept them. Put them in the and chalk into the river. However, the Great Ouse near Buckingham wrong place and it will push them COVID-19 necessitated a rethink. To to complete work that had been aside.

The River Mel, shaded and degraded The River Mel, looking like a chalkstream once again

WHY DO WE PUT GRAVEL INTO CHALKSTREAMS? • Silt-free gravel beds are vital for trout to spawn and are home to invertebrates, but river gravels are a valuable material and many rivers have been dredged to remove gravel;

• Rivers will naturally erode their banks and this releases new gravel into the riverbed, but where rivers have been straightened, impounded and abstracted the natural gravel replenishment process doesn’t happen - so we put in, or put back the gravel.

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 25 The Great Ouse wiring team - many hands make light work

Habitat improvement for the River Welland Through the heat of summer, I was fortunate to have my feet cooled in the waters of the upper Welland near Market Harborough, working with the Welland Valley Trust to deliver habitat improvements which saw the creation of a new wetland, bank re-grading, gravel placement, habitat ledges and tree-hinging; and, importantly, new fencing to ensure that the work was protected from cattle. As new plants establish, not only will the margins provide cover for juvenile fish, it is hoped that the water vole population will expand. Before the work, the river lay hidden in a deeply incised channel. Now that is has been re-graded and the top-of- bank widened, the river feels so much more approachable and it can hold a greater volume of water too. The be chiselled into position using a Cooling off in the Upper Welland main thing that I have learnt from metal spike and various weights of offering support to another person’s sledgehammer. Tiring work, but in Cambridgeshire, WTT has project is to ask, “have you checked we got there. become a project partner with that posts can be driven into the Cambridge City Council, Cambridge bed?” This reach of river had an The forgotten tributaries of Water Company and the local extremely hard layer of cobbles Cambridgeshire chalkstreams Wildlife Trust to undertake an audit beneath it and every post had to Following on from the 2019 drought of the area’s local chalkstreams with

26 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 Chris French (Welland Valley Trust) supervising the placement of spoil to create new marginal habitat following tree-hinging to let in light

Training new volunteers for the River Lark; respect to those who have to wear PPE all day

precious chalkstreams, including the formation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group of MPs.

Practical training for the Suffolk Lark Catchment Partnership And just before the country was facing its second wave of COVID-19 lockdowns, I’d agreed to lead some river restoration training with the River Lark Catchment Partnership. Numbers of participants were kept low, and a large-screen TV was a focus on the small tributaries. We’ll Cambridge. Sadly, low flows and erected in an outside shelter so I highlight to local decision-makers impending drought are still a hot could run my Powerpoint talks. the stresses faced by the streams topic in this area. The River Cam has Practical sessions on wiring-down and actions that could be taken to been notably low again with river faggot bundles were held on improve their biodiversity. Funding flow for September at only 47% of its dry land, which actually made is being sought for further work on long-term average. I’m encouraged demonstrating easier. The day went the River Mel and to improve the that a genuine urgency seems to surprisingly well once my glasses Vicar’s Brook in the centre of have entered the debate about our stopped steaming up!

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 27 out of the Urban River Toolkit which we published in September last year. News from Trout in It is proving to be a very popular way of supporting (and charting progress of) groups looking after their own the Town in the north sections of urban river. By Paul Gaskell TiTT Programme Manager Other projects that have received Trout in the Town input that have been able to continue ell, it is fair to say that 2020 strategic discussions - including these through delivery partners include Whas been a strange old year. examples from a recent meeting of the SUNRISE project in Stoke-on- Trout in the Town, naturally, has not the Douglas Catchment Partnership, Trent. A separate part of that project escaped the disruptive forces acting Fisheries Subgroup. (the re-naturalisation of a concrete on society from last March onwards. The national restrictions on travel, channel at Stoke City’s old Victoria That’s not to say that there has been social contact and other parts of Football Ground site) was featured nothing going on - whether through normal life may prove to have created in some detail on BBC One's partners delivering projects or the an opportunity for the WTT. In Countryfile recently - with the WTT WTT finding new ways to work in particular, by normalising the use being named as partners in the wider response to COVID restrictions. of video conferencing technology, a project. I’ll be going out on site soon If you didn’t have chance to attend reduction in CO2 emissions has been to see progress on the Staffordshire the Virtual Annual Get-Together, achieved compared to travel that University site of this project. I’ll also you might not have seen the short would, ordinarily, be necessary for be able to add to my existing video on-stream film (including the fish me to attend various meetings. Less record of how the site will change as a above) and detailed video discussion obviously, those meeting formats may result of the works. of Trout in the Town project also enable less extrovert participants I’ll be re-establishing activities activities and successes. You can to regain a larger proportion of input with a whole variety of urban and catch up on that whole film at your compared to ‘in person’ meetings suburban projects across northern leisure on WTT’s YouTube channel which may become dominated by one England in the coming months and using this link: https://youtu.be/HI- or two more extrovert attendees. I look forward to reporting on 2oX0305lk The meeting above is just one progress on those. I also look Similarly, wherever possible, I’ve example of the projects that are forward soon to completing and extended the use of video and remote signing up to become accredited, publishing our Mayfly in the conferencing technology to support local ‘chapters’ of Trout in the Town. Classroom teaching resource as a meetings, presentations and This is an initiative coming directly ‘print on demand’ booklet.

28 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 CHRISSY, 20 YEARS WISER

arly September 2020 marked the asked to lend a hand taking minutes E20th anniversary of Christina and to organise the conservation Bryant running the WTT office; awards, little did I know that very we asked some of WTT’s founding soon I would be turning my hand to fathers and grandees to reflect on anything and everything, paddling her time. hard beneath the surface sometimes Charles Rangeley-Wilson and rapidly learning to set up and notes that “it was obviously a maintain the systems necessary to serendipitous move when I asked administer, support and promote Jonathan Young at The Field if he’d the Trust and its wide range of recommend Chrissy for some “light activities, also to provide a public extra admin work” and he said to face and a central point of contact. me that she was “the best point and WTT has grown so much since I shoot fixer” he’d ever worked with. was its only employee, but my role is That was a pretty fair summation still very varied which ensures a lot and I’m very glad we acted on it.” Chrissy with her agility dog, Purdey of interest and satisfaction. Mike Weaver remembers “Chrissy And I love looking after and joining us only two years after we m e a s u re .” hearing from members, many of got started. She has certainly done Graham Coley, current day whom I have come to know and a terrific job for us over the last 20 chairman, says “for the past 20 regard as friends. years and I would like to add my years, Chrissy has provided I’m proud to have helped the thanks to her for a contribution that the firm foundation, with energy, original band of Trustees and the has meant so much to the success enthusiasm and unfailing volunteer Exec Committee and of the WTT.” commitment, which has enabled then to support and assist our first Jon Beer, WTT President, feels the Trust to grow so successfully. Director, Fred Scourse, followed by that “there are precious few things We look forward to her next Simon Johnson; and now the current you can rely on in recent times. 20 years.” Director Shaun Leonard, Trustees, Chrissy Bryant and Terry’s David Marriott, involved from Trust Sec David Marriott and the Chocolate Orange. That’s about it. our early days and today’s Trust rest of the team. And we’re bloody lucky we’ve still Secretary, works very closely with To have contributed to the growth got both.” Chrissy and comments and success of WTT is fantastic Richard Slocock, an early WTT “Directors come and go, as do and very rewarding. Not sure chairman, says that “Chrissy was an Trustees, but the one constant another 20 years is on the cards, but absolute rock during my chairman- throughout the existence of the I’ll certainly be here for a few years ship, always forgiving of my ropey WTT has been Chrissy Bryant. To yet… admin skills and always good for a most of our members she IS the I’d like to thank, very much lovely chat, so cheerful, so efficient, Wild Trout Trust and without her indeed, those above for their just perfect!” total commitment over the last 20 exceptionally kind words and WTT Edward Twiddy, erstwhile years the charity would certainly not for recognising my long service, not chairman among many roles, “first have become the success it is with a fishing rod (phew!) but with a met Chrissy when she was still The today. Thank you Chrissy, your superb hi-fi system that I will enjoy Field’s Agony Aunt, responding to award is well deserved!” for a very long time.” reader’s questions about sloe gin and In response, Chrissy said… Huge congratulations, Chrissy; we Labrador hip scores. Since which, “In those early days when I was couldn’t have done it without you. she’s answered every question for WTT members, put magazines to bed, ensured we are on the right Jon Beer, WTT President, feels that “there are side of GDPR, brought in tens precious few things you can rely on in recent times. nay hundreds of thousands of Chrissy Bryant and Terry’s Chocolate Orange. That’s pounds, organised knees-ups and celebrations and given time beyond about it. And we’re bloody lucky we’ve still got both”.

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 29 OBITUARIES Farewell SM-S e were very sad to hear managed - that's a lasting legacy." of the Wye and Usk. Five years Wthat Stephen Marsh-Smith In 2011, Stephen was awarded later, he stepped down as Chief OBE died in August 2020, aged 69. an OBE for services to the Executive of WUF to become the He was the founder of the Wye environment and conservation head of Afonydd Cymru, the & Usk Foundation (WUF) and umbrella organisation for Welsh leaves a long-lasting legacy to the rivers trusts. He retained an Foundation as well as to the rivers important role as Advisory Director trust and environmental movement. for WUF, representing the Simon Evans, Chief Executive of Foundation at ministerial level and WUF, said the Welsh environment guiding staff and trustees with his sector had lost a "force of nature", wealth of experience and expertise. calling him a “colossus of the An avid salmon angler, Stephen environmental movement.” lived life to the full. In his youth, "Stephen was instrumental in he was a member of the England the formation of the rivers trust international flyfishing team although movement and this idea of normal he always gave the impression he people getting involved in trying to would have much preferred to look after their rivers in a way that represent Wales. statutory bodies were unable to do His immense presence will be very so" Evans said. "Over time the much missed by all those who knew government has seen us as a key and worked with him. Our thoughts delivery partner in trying to make are, of course, with his wife Seren, things better. And we now have a his son Edward and his daughters, say in how the environment is Stephen Marsh-Smith Henrietta and Georgina.

Jim Glasspool im Glasspool sadly died in JSeptember 2020. He was the Secretary of the Test & Itchen Association for 20 years, then a member of the T&I Board and a Trustee of the Wessex Rivers The lower beat of Rochienne’s water on the Itchen Trust. He was instrumental in the formation of both the Angling Trust and the Wessex Rivers Trust. Always a Rochienne Pearce gentleman, quietly spoken ochienne Pearce sadly died in including the late John Goddard but utterly determined, he RAugust this year. She was the (who Rochienne called ‘God’) and dedicated his retirement to his dedicated and caring owner of a Brian Clarke. Always full of bounce beloved chalkstreams and to beautiful stretch of the River Itchen and enthusiasm, it was a joy to meet angling. He was fishing on his near Winchester, and was well known her on the riverbank. Our thoughts beloved Itchen only a few days locally and by the ‘rods’ who were are with her partner, Colin, and her before he died. lucky enough to fish her water - family.

30 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020 WTT GOODIES

WTT memberships and goodies can be ordered via the Shop on our website at http://www.wildtrout.org/, or by sending your order and cheque to the WTT Office. P&P prices are for UK second class, please enquire for overseas.

ORVIS CAP £15 plus £3.30 p&p One size only ENAMELLED MUGS CDs Grab one of these stunning WTT The Uplands River Habitat Manual enamelled mugs. Big enough for a good The Chalkstream Habitat Manual cuppa but small enough to take fishing, Urban Rivers Restoration Guidelines camping or just out in the garden. Rivers - Working for Wild Trout Size 10 oz. Not dishwasher-safe. £10 each plus £1.15 p&p £9 plus £3.30 p&p FREEPOST CAR STICKERS Our Freepost address is: Freepost, WILD AND BADGES TROUT TRUST. If you use one of our Car stickers £1.60 pre-printed envelopes or one of your own, Pin badges £3.85 THE WILD TROUT please don’t write anything else on it as the Cloth badges £4.60 SURVIVAL GUIDE Post Office will surcharge us if you do. all inc p&p £10 plus £2 p&p Thank you.

CONTACT US

THE WILD TROUT TRUST The North [email protected] Registered Charity [email protected] Nick Lawrence 1162478 (England & Wales) Southern, Thames, S West, SCO46354 (Scotland) CONSERVATION OFFICERS South & Mid-Wales Charitable Company No. 03345901 Tim Jacklin [email protected] Registered in England & Wales N England, Midlands, Anglian, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER N Wales Denise Ashton WILD TROUT TRUST OFFICE [email protected] [email protected], Christina Bryant Andy Thomas 07802 454157 Trust & Data Manager (including Southern, Thames, S West, membership) South & Mid-Wales FUNDRAISING EVENTS The Wild Trout Trust, PO Box 120, [email protected] OFFICER Waterlooville PO8 0WZ, Paul Gaskell Bruno Vincent [email protected] / 023 9257 0985 Trout in the Town (North) [email protected] [email protected] DIRECTOR Theo Pike Shaun Leonard Trout in the Town (South) COMPANY SECRETARY [email protected], [email protected] David Marriott 07974 861908 Rob Mungovan [email protected] Eastern & Central England RESEARCH & [email protected] NEWSLETTER CONSERVATION OFFICER Gareth Pedley Denise Ashton, Rebecca Hawtrey, Jon Grey The North Christina Bryant, Shaun Leonard

AUTUMN 2020 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS 31 WTT ANNUAL DRAW THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER 2020

Do please buy a ticket or two or more… 3rd PRIZE KINDLY DONATED BY WILLIAM DANIEL and encourage your friends and colleagues & FAMOUS FISHING, WORTH £450 to do likewise. A day’s fishing for 3 rods on 1½ miles of the Lambourn Tickets cost £1 each. We have some lovely at Weston. 2021 season by arrangement on a Monday, prizes as listed below and all proceeds are Tuesday or Wednesday after 30 June. used wisely in our habitat restoration work. Please use the order form enclosed with this 4th PRIZE KINDLY DONATED BY GEORGE Newsletter or visit the shop on our website & ANN EATON, WORTH £120 at www.wildtrout.org. We will complete the A day for 2 or 3 people (can be parent and child) to counterfoils and send you the corresponding watch wildlife from a ‘high seat’ in a tree at Rectory tickets by post or ticket numbers by email, Farm, Bucks to see badgers, muntjac deer, hare, owls whichever you prefer. and foxes. Summer 2021. Thank you for your support and good luck! 5th PRIZE KINDLY 1st PRIZE KINDLY DONATED BY SAGE, DONATED BY JAMES WORTH APPROX £1000 LANFEAR OF JIM’S LURES, A Sage Single Handed Fly Rod of your choice from WORTH £80 the range current at the time of the draw to A pair of exquisite, wooden which will be added an appropriate reel and line. fishing lures, hand-crafted in Devon by James Lanfear of 2nd PRIZE KINDLY DONATED Jim’s Lures. BY THE PEACOCK AT ROWSLEY & HADDON FISHERIES, WORTH £470 PLEASE ENSURE ORDER FORMS ARE RECEIVED IN One night’s accommodation in a large double/twin THE WTT OFFICE BY WEDNESDAY 16 DECEMBER room for 2 people with 3 course dinner and buffet Please use our Freepost address and allow 5 breakfast, plus 2 low-season tickets to fish the working days.Tickets can be ordered via the shop Derbyshire Wye. 2021 season. on our website until 5pm on Thursday 17 December.

EVENTS

WTT AUCTION including Sage rods and elegant Our annual fundraising auction trophies. Many other runner-up will take place 19-28 March 2020. prizes. A raffle will be held at Please contact Bruno Vincent lunchtime. The Three-Fly Challenge ([email protected]) if you is a fishing tournament that will test would like to offer a new or your skills and catching ability as repeat lot. you will only be able to use three flies (one at a time), these will be year and raised £680 for the WTT. THREE-FLY CHALLENGE provided on the day: Kites Imperial The pandemic restrictions Sadly postponed in 2020 due dry (3 points per fish); Black buzzer meant fewer members were to the pandemic, we plan to (2 points per fish); GRHE nymph (1 able to attend than usual, but a hold the Three Fly Challenge on point per fish). thoroughly good time was had Saturday 19 June 2021 at the by all who were able to join. Thank Meon Springs Fishery near West WTT MEMBERS FISHING you so much to the Haddon Estate Meon in Hampshire. This is a WEEKEND ON THE and to Jan Hobot, the Head simply brilliant day of fishing and DERBYSHIRE WYE Riverkeeper. Another fishing camaraderie, with lots and lots The members fishing weekend weekend is planned for 2021 and of laughter, all raising excellent on the River Wye at Haddon in members will be notified of the funds for WTT. Tremendous prizes Derbyshire took place in July this date in due course.

32 WILD TROUT TRUST NEWS AUTUMN 2020