Deerness fish passes opened From The Northern Echo

 

TWO new fish passes have been opened, marking the half-way point of a three-year project to breathe life back into a river.

The Wear Rivers Trust has been working on the River Deerness, which flows past Esh Winning, Ushaw Moor and Langley Moor before joining the River Browney near Durham City.

Opening events were held last weekend in Ushaw Moor and Lion Mouth Rural Centre, near Esh Winning.

At Lion Mouth, Kevin Summerson, from the Environment Agency, said: “The Wear Rivers Trust has done a great job in building this fish pass across the bridge apron, which previously was a major barrier to migrating fish.”

via Deerness fish passes opened From The Northern Echo.

River Wear Preservation Group – R Deerness Improvements – Open Day Oct 26th

 

A GROUP whose aim is to look after the River Wear and all its tributaries has been given a vote of confidence by a water chief.

Jerry Gallop, the national manager for the DEFRA Catchment Restoration Fund at the Environment Agency said he was very impressed with the work being done by the Wear Rivers Trust, who have been appointed the official custodians of the River Wear catchment, which includes all the waterways that flow into the river.

The trust is now working on a three year project to remove a number of barriers restricting fish movement throughout the River Deerness sub-catchment which will help to increase fish populations and benefit the wider environment.

Durham University have surveyed baseline fish populations and will measure improvements.

During his visit Mr Gallop was able to see some of the improvements that have been delivered on the River Deerness during the last 12 months and discuss the planned activity for the next year.

He said “The trust is looking at the whole picture along the river which is exactly what the catchment restoration fund and catchment based approach is looking for.

“The genuine desire to get the environmental outcomes is more than apparent.”

Partner organisations include the Environment Agency, Durham County Council, Northumbrian Water, Ground Work North East, Durham Wildlife Trust, Durham University, North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and Natural England.

The trust will hold an open day starting at Ushaw Moor Bridge at 10am on Saturday, October 26, followed by another information event at Lion Mouth Rural Centre in Esh Winning at noon.

via River Wear preservation group gets support from Environment boss From The Northern Echo.

River Deerness Restoration Project | Wear Rivers Trust

The ongoing River Deerness Restoration Project aims to restore habitat connectivity for fish species by creating and monitoring fish passage solutions at a series of manmade barriers on a tributary of the River Wear.

As a result of the Deerness feasibility studies, a successful application was made to Defra’s Catchment Restoration Fund in order to carry out a three-year River Deerness Restoration Project. In partnership with Durham County Council and Durham University, this project will address the fish passage barriers identified during the feasibility studies and, equally importantly, will assess the impact that the easement solutions have.

This assessment will be achieved by ‘before and after’ surveys and monitoring at each easement site, carried out by a PhD student from Durham University’s Biology Department. Electro-fishing and fish-tagging, habitat surveys and invertebrate samples will all be carried out upstream and downstream of each site both before and after easement work. It is expected that the abundance of migratory fish passing the barriers will increase and the PhD work will be used to confirm whether this is the case. The study of fish populations and movements through a series of long culverts in the Old Durham Beck catchment is also part of the three year programme.

The barrier at Cornsay Colliery, the furthest upstream, has now had a fish easement installed and more details are available on the Cornsay project page. By the end of the project we hope to see the whole course of the River Deerness opened up to all local fish species.

via River Deerness Restoration Project | Wear Rivers Trust.