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2 miles of Thames vandalism

Bird nesting season is probably 1st April onward, earlier if the weather has been mild - a lot of vegetation clearance will be done at end-March to beat the cut-off. We certainly will do it as a preventative measure at work if we think there is a chance of needing to do other construction work during the summer months.
 
The damage is happened on my local too. On a plus the stumps are still in and willow grows quite fast and it will have put on a good 5 foot of growth by end of summer. On bare stretches break off some decent willow branches and dig them iN now they will definately root. Think for the future, 3 years down the line and my little rivers bouncing back.
 
Jon Frisby said:
The damage is happened on my local too. On a plus the stumps are still in and willow grows quite fast and it will have put on a good 5 foot of growth by end of summer. On bare stretches break off some decent willow branches and dig them iN now they will definately root. Think for the future, 3 years down the line and my little rivers bouncing back.
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Good advice Jon,
We lost lots of bankside alders on the Wey starting in the mid nineties through phytopthora and were advised that coppicing may regenerate some.
Unfortunately most died, which was a real blow as alder was the predominant species along the river and subsequently many good swims were lost.
I read with interest about the regeneration of the Wensum at the time and spent a morning pruning willows and planting the cuttings along parts of the river ( they had used willow osiers on the Wensum) but I made a fatal mistake.
I had overlooked the fact that cattle were partial to a nice bit of willow and without buffer strips the buggers munched them all to ground level ! ::rolleyes:
Bankside growth was helped by the unfortunate outbreak of foot and mouth desease with willows predominating, but there always seems to be someone out there who wants to take a saw to them.
 
When i was young a damp area of our garden always contained a number of willow cuttings.When rooted, my dad would take me and plant them alongside the river Colne,40 years on and they are massive willows.It gives me a good feeling when walking past them,my dads long gone but his work is still growing strong.I dread this sort of thing happening to them.As you say Jon, they grow easily.
 
The EA have butchered one of my favourite little rivers too. Have written to the controlling club - who, in fairness, think the EA went too far - to complain, but do anglers have any real recourse? After all, it's not just the fishing that suffers but the whole ecosystem.

Dave
 
Mick Holtom said:
The National Trust have cut down most of the bushes on the Thames at Runnymead and just left the odd large tree.

Two men are burning the bushes and not even recycling .


Micky
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Hi Micky,
The work the NT has done at Runnymead is no where near as drastic as this. The river Thames local to me at Bray had many of it's trees hacked back by the EA just before the Olympics a couple of years ago. That theme has continued though over the last two years.

The example on this thread does exceed anything I have seen though. It is shocking and needs challenging.

Ian
 
used to be one of my favorite stretches of the Thames, i pressume it's abingdon and oxford angling alliance water?

winter legues are still fished at radley either side of the boat house fortunately down that end the far bank features were the flyers for big chub.

same things happening on the oxford canal at the moment...even the CRT fisheries manager apologised for the damage done
 
The EA are going to be doing some work on a streatch of St Patricks Steam at Twyford shortly at behest of the local self appointed "Flood Defence Committee" I going to make sure I'm there......
 
Richard Longmuir said:
The EA are going to be doing some work on a streatch of St Patricks Steam at Twyford shortly at behest of the local self appointed "Flood Defence Committee" I going to make sure I'm there......
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That's just it you,ve got to know it's going to happen and the majority of the time you will be able to control what they do and get the wildlifey groups on your side would help even more.

I used to do a lot of self appointing locally on the the ATR consultative in the end they couldn't serve enough lager to keep me calm!:)
 
Dinosaur thinking based on a flawed end of pipe 'solution'. The real solution lies in reducing the silt / sediment load in the first instance.
 
The EA are going to be doing some work on a streatch of St Patricks Steam at Twyford shortly at behest of the local self appointed "Flood Defence Committee" I going to make sure I'm there......
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Good for you Rich. I don't understand the logic since the St Pats flows out of the Thames only to rejoin it via a little bit of the Loddon. It would be a shame to see trees and habitat destroyed particularly if only on behalf of the few very affluent but vociferous residents 'protecting their little bit of (private) England. It's a bit rich really isn't it? they will have built/bought their houses in absolute full knowledge that they'd be on a well established annually flooded flood plain (90% of the houses are on stilts/raised in recognition of that) I just hope they don't see the St.Pats merely as a drain. Hope that's not the case. It's primarily a habitat, a beautiful stretch of river and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

I'm just going on gut feeling so I hope someone with more knowledge will put me right if that is the case.
 
You need to get in touch with 'Natural England' and report it... and see what they have to say. I'm sure that any destructive work like this would have had to be done by the end of February (possibly by law) and NE should have investigated before the work was carried out..and NE permission would have to be given/granted. Follow it up!
 
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