The Water Framework Silt Reduction Project is progressing well. We have completed the initial coppicing and installation of revetments and silt traps and will be fencing off livestock from the banks this spring.

The Project is funded by Environment Agency Wales and the MRA. For more details see the Projects Page. It is being run in conjunction with further EA Wales funding to tackle silt run off from fields, gates and yards.

The sites have been chosen because they are sites where extreme erosion is taking place or has taken place in the past for a variety of reasons.

Here are a few examples of the damage that has been done to the river banks and the cures:

An example of a living revetment; a very large erosion scar on the upper main Monnow, filled with laid alders. With the sap rising they are much less likely to break off so will keep growing. We will wire them in just in case they get free and stuck under a bridge. Flooding property is frowned upon - such a bore!

Another similar in the same area,

One of the Wye and Usk Foundation team in action on the Dore doing a similar job

And this one from the Dulas of the newly finished coppicing and layering of a hazel, which was an old grown out hedge along the length of the river's left bank. This will trap silt and provide protection for adult and juvenile trout and grayling as well as native crayfish which love coarse woody debris.

I’ll endeavour to keep this News Page updated more often with more words and pictures on this Project and on the ongoing Non Native Weed Project, which will kick off in earnest in the next week or so, now that the Himalayan Balsam seedlings are appearing.