Award-winning river restorations

River restoration projects in Suffolk, Cumbria and Somerset were recognised at the 2018 Wild Trout Trust Awards.

A restoration project on a tiny stretch of the Lark, Suffolk’s only chalkstream, won the contribution to wild trout conservation award. The Bell Meadow Project is one of a dozen projects undertaken by the River Lark Catchment Partnership to encourage wild trout to spread throughout the chalkstream.

Alerted to the poor state of a stretch of the river in Bury St Edmunds by a resident, volunteers cut a new, smaller, meandering channel in the cemented riverbed using jet pumps and forks. The felled tree material overshading the river was staked down to form a new low bank.

After the work was completed in December 2017 the river began to behave naturally again, depositing silt and sediment in the margins and onto the low banks. “Invertebrates and fish are now resident in the section as well as kingfishers, wagtails and an egret,” said Glenn Smithson, who oversees the 20-strong group of volunteers on the river.

He said winning the award was, “recognition of all the hard work put in by the volunteers” and would help in plans to bid for lottery funding for other sections.

An ambitious project by the West Cumbria Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency to remove a historic weir on the River Ehen in Cumbria won the largescale habitat enhancement scheme, while the medium-scale habitat enhancement scheme winner was the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust for the Wellow and Cam Initiative in Somerset.