cbec eco-engineering UK & Europe

Removal of the Marybank Weir in the Balnagown River The weir below Marybank Old Church was identified as a barrier to fish migration by the Cromarty Fishery Board and has since been a priority management objective in terms of both instream connectivity and access to spawning grounds for Atlantic Salmon and Sea Trout. The Balnagown is rare as it remains heavily wooded on both banks along much of its course. This contributes to its productivity, providing excellent feeding grounds and habitat for fish communities throughout the lower and middle reaches. Resident Brown Trout are abundant, extending up to the headwater streams, and the river traditionally supported a very strong run of sea trout. However it has become evident that the primary issue for fish is the prevalence of man-made barriers, many of which are now redundant. The removal of the Marybank Weir will open up a 14 km stretch of highly valuable habitat, restore natural river flows, and reinstate the natural processes of sediment transport, which are crucial for the river’s health and productivity and will restore passage for anadromous fish increasing juvenile densities of Salmon and Sea Trout upstream of the weir. This will, in turn, benefit native freshwater invertebrates, other fish species such as Lamprey and Eels, and the broader ecological communities. Our enormous thanks go to the Cromarty Fishery Board who organised this project, European Open Rivers Programme who funded it, the contractor K.J. MACKENZIE (GARVE) LTD and Sunny Bradbury who has put in a tremendous effort to make all of this happen. We are thrilled to support this project. Thank you also for the brilliant images and footage of progress. For more info please visit: https://lnkd.in/dwZyZVGk #river #salmon #management

Trees downed during Storm Arwen in 2021 are having a second life as part of a green engineering root wad system that we’ve been managing for Northumbrian Water on Northumberland’s Lower Wooler river. The locally-sourced trees are helping to stabilise a river bank, protect critical infrastructure and provide new habitat for invertebrates and the juvenile fish who feed on them.   The process involves using windblown trees with the root-ball still intact and installing them into the riverbank with the root-ball protruding into the river. This protects the bank from erosion, slows the flow of water downstream by absorbing the energy of the river, provides habitat for invertebrates and spawning fish and is more sensitive to the features of the river for which has designated status.   The system is an ecologically-friendly replacement for an artificial, hard-engineered system of boulders that had been in place on 125m of the river as an emergency measure to protect essential water mains and a nearby footpath following flooding in 2012. While effective in the short term, this temporary solution had been failing in recent years leading to erosion, loss of land and damage to associated habitats.   Additional work on-site also aims to ease pressure on the riverbank during flood events.   It’s great to have been able to give dozens of trees a second life as part of this important river restoration scheme. Thanks to the landowners involved and our contractors, cbec eco-engineering and Harwood Contracting. Tweed Forum Project Officer, Craig Marshall is pictured with trees ready for installation.