Case study:Healthy Rivers

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Location: 51° 39' 0.84" N, 3° 11' 43.85" W

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Environmental flows and water resources, Fisheries, Habitat and biodiversity, Social benefits
Country	Wales
Main contact forename	Gail
Main contact surname	Devine
Main contact user ID	User:Hywel Abbott
Contact organisation	Groundwork Wales
Contact organisation web site	http://https://www.groundwork.org.uk/sites/wales
Partner organisations
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects

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Project summary

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The Healthy Rivers programme at Groundwork Wales carries out work on the rivers of the South East Wales with the aim of improving the river habitats so that they can support greater populations of native fish such as salmon, trout, eels and bull heads. The fish populations in many of the South East Wales rivers have depleted fish stocks due to pollution and man made modifications to the river channels that prevent fish accessing all the available river habitats. Due to depleted fish populations, many of the rivers in South East Wales are failing to achieve good status under the Water Framework Directive. The aim of the Healthy Rivers programme is to improve the river habitats so that they can support greater populations of fish by removing man made barriers to fish migration and creating new instream habitats. Healthy Rivers aims to engage local people in their local rivers by offering volunteer opportunities, community river care days and training opportunities, this instils a long term appreciation of the river habitats. Engaging local communities is essential for the conservation of the rivers, if they are engaged local people will appreciate the rivers and look after them in the future. Healthy Rivers also works with local primary schools to deliver salmon and eels in the classroom. This type of engagement with children is essential in ensuring that they understand the river habitats and look after them in the future.

Monitoring surveys and results

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Healthy Rivers works in close partnership with NRW to monitor the rivers to access the impact of fish passes and modifications. Healthy Rivers works with NRW to electro fish rivers to monitor the fish stocks and carry out walkover to record salmon and trout redds. In the winter of 2013 walkover surveys discovered the presence of salmon redds in the upper reaches of the River Sirhowy for the first time in 100 years as a direct result of removing and modifying weirs further downstream.

Fish passes are regularly monitored to ensure that they are working effectively and not becoming clogged up with floating debris. Each project is evaluated upon completion to assess what went well and what could be done better next time. This evaluation process is essential in improving process and projects in the future

We record monthly programme data in Programme Performance Measures which records: number of projects, area of land improved, number of volunteers, schools engaged and litter and waste removed from green spaces.

Groundwork Wales is Investors In People certified and working towards Investors In Volunteers which requires regular monitoring and evaluation of volunteer experiences and reviews of training achieved by volunteers and staff.

Lessons learnt

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The rivers of South East Wales have an industrial past and were considered dirty and polluted and were therefore abused. The heavy industry has now gone and the rivers have improved drastically, however local people don’t all ways see this and continue to abuse the rivers by dumping litter and rubbish as the think it won’t matter. Healthy Rivers has lead the campaign on this issue by promoting the river habitats and encourage people to change their behavior.

River restoration is physically demanding and requires volunteers to work hard but Healthy Rivers has been fortunate in finding a team of excellent and extremely hard working volunteers.  

The weather in South Wales is unpredictable and rain can disrupt river restoration projects or cause unexpected floods which wash away partially finished projects. However Healthy Rivers has always been able to overcome these difficulties. Working in the river does not always go to plan, the river is a dynamic system so Healthy Rivers staff have had to become efficient at over coming difficulties and problems.

Image gallery

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Blockage removed from Ebbw River

Mill road fish pass ramp

Litter and waste removed from Nant yr Aber

Healthy Rivers recieves first prize at Tidy Wales Awards

Fish pass through Tredegar culvert

Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present Invasive species present Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) Project started 2015/04/01 Works started Works completed 2017/03/31 Project completed Total cost category Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Stakeholder engagement and communication Works and works supervision Post-project management and maintenance Monitoring Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Improving river habitats to support diverse populations of fish, Fish depletion Hydromorphology Biology Fish, Fish: Abundance Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Weir removal, Weir modification Floodplain / River corridor Barrier removal, Habitat creation Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Walkover surveys and water sample data collection, Monitoring strategy Social measures (incl. engagement) Community involvement, Community Education Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description http://www.groundwork.org.uk/sites/wales http://www.groundwork.org.uk/Sites/wales/Website/jordan-hayes-a-volunteers-story Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information