Rivers Network

Poor habitat and multiple impassable barriers to fish migration (both up and downstream for "resident" and "sea-migratory" fish) were all tackled by a project instigated by Tim Jacklin of the Wild Trout Trust and delivered as a partnership managed by the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project.

The digging of a new channel is not a simple thing if it is to be suitable to respond naturally and to the best benefit under all flow conditions. For instance, the mathematics required to ensure that the constructed channel would retain the installed gravel spawning riffles (i.e. avoid wash-out under spate flows) whilst not becoming swamped with fine silt were vital to get right.

Incidentally - this last point (i.e. the risk of making the channel too large in cross-section causing it to act as a silt trap) is precisely what happens when dredging is undertaken in order to artificially enlarge channel capacity.....

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