August 2010

    Second Gravel placement task completed.

During the day the gravel was delivered, all 40 tons of it in two huge lorries! A few days later a contractor placed it into the stream in heaps at each of the locations using a dumper truck and digger. The volunteers returned the following week to rake the gravel level and tidy up. The water level was very low, owing to the recent drought, but there were fish in some of the pools of water and several volunteers found young toads in the mud.

July 2010

 RACS recently completed its first major conservation task of the year, placing 30 tons of gravel into the Woods Mill Stream in order to encourage spawning by sea trout. Female sea trout pile up gravel in streams such as this in order to create a suitable place or ‘redd’ on which to lay their eggs. In the past, streams like this have provided plenty of places for sea trout to create redds, but over the years gravels have been lost mainly due to silting caused by reduced flow resulting from increased water abstraction and man-made obstructions.   By adding gravel to carefully selected locations in the stream RACS hopes to return sea trout populations to former levels. 

The first task, carried out by RACS volunteers and others, was to place logs on the bed of the stream, to act as a barrier to prevent the gravel from being washed away. The logs were arranged in a  ‘Vee’, pointing upstream , held down with J-shaped metal rods hammered into the streambed. Luckily, flow was very low and only in a few places was the water level above wellie height, but the stream bed is six feet below the level of the surrounding fields and a ladder was needed in places to climb in and out! Next, a contractor using a dumper truck and a digger placed the gravel in the stream, and finally, a small team of volunteers returned a few days later to rake the gravel into level patches upstream of the logs. 

RACS is very grateful to the Sussex Ouse Conservation Society (SOCS) for a great deal of practical assistance, without which this would not have been possible. The method used was based on a similar, successful, exercise carried out by SOCS on one of the tributaries of the Ouse last year. SOCS helped out with tools and a willing and effective team of volunteers.   Funding came from grants provided by DEFRA which RACS and SOCS have jointly applied for as members of the Association of Rivers Trusts and obtained to cover a number of projects on the Sussex Ouse and the River Adur.  RACS has two more projects to undertake this summer under this scheme which we will be reporting on shortly.

It takes months of planning to prepare for a task of this sort. Firstly, the consent of the landowner has to be obtained and then Environment Agency approval must be sought. Then a source of gravel has to be found.   Just any old gravel will not do. It must match reasonably well the type of gravel that naturally occurs in the stream. In this case a flint gravel of the right size was obtained from a helpful firm in New Milton, Hampshire. Finally, someone with the appropriate knowledge has to identify and mark suitable locations for the placement of the gravel. Knowing the locations of old redds helps, as does a good knowledge of the behaviour and preferences of sea trout. 

The Woods Mill Stream has three sources at the foot of the South Downs, one at Sadlescombe, one at Edburton and the third at Fulking near the Shepherd and Dog pub where the Victorian fountain is a well-known landmark. It flows roughly northwest until it passes Woods Mill, the headquarters of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, and then continues west until it joins the Adur just north of Stretham Manor. Sea trout swim up the river, finding their way into narrow tributaries such as this to breed. They arrive in the winter months when water levels are much higher than they are now, enabling them to swim upstream and enabling them to overcome obstacles, natural and man-made, in the river. 

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  January 2010

 

 September 2009
Laybrook landfill site press release

January 2009
Sea Trout spawning in Adur tributary

19 January 2009.  After heavy rainfall overnight, a small party led by John Whiting (with permission from the land owner) checked a field adjoining a tributary of the Adur.  At 11am the field was well flooded, and no stranded fish were observed, though we did see at least 2 sea trout of size 4 to 5 lbs swimming vigorously in the water covering the field.  One swam up a shallow current spilling down from a track, and we deduce, probably managed to reach the stream, as we found no evidence of it in the shallow water between said track and the stream.

December 2008
RACS workparty visit Knepp Castle Estate

 A working party was held on the Knepp Castle Estate in December. The party cleared barbed wire fencing, which could not easily be removed by machinery, from the banks of the Lancing Brook. Barbed wire is being cleared from the estate so that traditional grazing animals such as Longhorn cattle and Tamworth pigs can roam freely to the benefit of wildlife. 

The Lancing Brook was full after recent rains and there was evidence that the obstructions placed earlier in the year were diverting the water course as intended.  

October 2008
RACS workparty loosen compacted gravel in an attempt to improve Sea trout spawning success

In the middle of October a small work party from RACS raked a fair length of gravel in a small head stream on the western side of the River Adur.

The reason for doing this is to loosen the gravel on the stream bed to enable hen seatrout to make a cut in the gravel (called a redd) deposit her eggs which are then fertilised by the cock fish and covered over by the hen. This stream is an important spawning resource for seatrout, the work carried out in conjunction with the Environment Agency should mean better spawning results this season.
 

18th August 2008
Black Sewer – RACS assist the Environment Agency with stream habitat improvement project

The best of the large woody debris (LWD) was put to one side so that it could be placed and pegged parallel with the bank to provide habitat for invertebrates and to slightly narrow the channel to assist the winter spates to flush out the silt.

Last Sunday morning a party of  volunteers  formed from RACS , Sussex Ouse Conservation Society and the Sussex Piscatorial Society went on site to place the LWD as agreed with the Environment Agency. In spite of nearly 5mm of rain early Sunday morning the stream level was very low and after we had placed two large logs up stream of a pool, the large amount of silt being stirred up was seen causing stress to several small trout in the pool. Work was stopped immediately, the trout recovered but its felt that we now have to leave things as they are. Afterwards further down stream we moved some concrete which should help the flow in winter spates to wash out more silt.

June 2008
RACS News update
Our project at Pondtail Farm on the Knepp Estate  to create more wetland by blocking the land drainage was partially successful but further work which involved adding more clay to the dams we had previously constructed has now almost completely stopped the water flow.

The resultant wetland will hopefully add to the biodiversity of the area as it attracts plants and insects to move in .

Two other projects being planned.

The Black Sewer at Steyning.
Not a sewer but an attractive small stream and we are hoping to assist the Environment Agency in moving rubbish and obstructions which are at the present blocking the stream and causing it to silt up. When this been done and the flow increased by heavy rain the silt will be washed out .

Knepp Estate.
This is a project to introduce large woody debris into a tributary of the Lancing Brook which flows into the western arm of the River Adur. The purpose is to make more water flow on to the flood plain and remain thus creating larger wetland and more scope for biodiversity.

 17th February 2008
SOCS Teams up with RACS on Wetlands project

At the weekend members of the SOCS Task Force swapped rivers to help the River Adur Conservation Society (RACS) with an exciting wetland creation project at Pondtail Farm on the Knepp Castle Estate near Horsham. Estate owner, Charlie Burrell involved RACS to organise and complete the work as part of a landscape re-wilding project currently being undertaken.

One aspect of this large scale project is to re-wild part of the River Adur by restoring watercourses back to their state prior to the introduction of intensive farming on the estate. The aim of this re-wilding is to recreate important wetland habitat and is achieved quite simply by blocking drainage ditches and culverts to force watercourses to overflow onto their natural floodplains.  

By use of a hired digger and driver, RACS have now blocked a number of culverts at Pondtail Farm using wooden boards and chestnut piles backfilled with clay to create dams. Now the land drainage has effectively been removed the creation of wetland will begin.

A short distance from the work site there is graphic evidence of where this has already been achieved. A flooded, boggy field with a restored stream now following its original course, replaces a once well drained dairy pasture. RACS have worked with the estate owner and the Environment Agency to ensure this work will achieve the Estate’s objective and is good ecological practice.

Until recently most of the land on the Knepp Castle Estate was devoted to traditional arable and dairy farming but in 2001 they shifted their focus entirely and embarked on a series of regeneration and restoration projects aimed primarily at nature conservation and a less intensive meat production. One aspect of the Estates ‘Wildland project’ is the ‘re-wilding’ of the River Adur – allowing the river to return to its natural meanders after three centuries of being directed into a canal.  This will return the old water lags to a natural flood plain system and is anticipated to encourage a much richer diversity of wildlife and plants.  

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