At a guess, every river In the country would benefit from the removal of structures that restrict migration.
At a guess there as always been otters on the teme/ Severn, they never died out?
Speight rivers are unique in at certain times migration barriers disappear in floods....thing is it rarely happens at a time of migration.
Barbel we're never indigenous to the Severn catchment so it's a bonus for anglers to have them there
Which large river, considered to be the best angling river in the country as no barriers and as no shortage of predation....the Wye, Severns next door neighbour.
So I find it hard not to support a local rivers trust
Just to give an idea how weir removal is regarded.
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Then again as mr gauntlet says " it's just jobs for the boys"
What can I say Mr. Bean, other than that if you care to sift through the list in your link of rivers that have bean 'improved', right near the top you will come across the tiny river Chess, which was 'improved' in 1995.
Now, I have lived within a very few miles of that lovely wee genuine chalk stream for my entire life, and in fact have lived for the past 42 years within 200 yards of it....about a half a mile upstream of the area where the 'improvement' project (weir removal etc.) was carried out. I used to visit it on a regular basis as a youngster, either to fish it or just to be there, such was the attraction
The whole of the river throughout it's length supported an astonishing variety of wildlife, it was a pure joy. The springs that fed it provided crystal clear water that flowed through it's beds of gently waving streamer weed, which parted occasionally to expose the lovely clear gravel bed...and wild brown trout were abundant. There were many rogue rainbows as well, escapees from a local fish farm, many of them weighing in excess of 4 lbs, but they all thrived in this stunning little stream. It did flood occasionally, when the surface water flowed into it during heavy rain....in fact the whole of the lower village flooded at times, but bye and large it behaved itself impeccably.
Then came the 'improvement'. Now I have no proof either way of why it should have happened, but the river levels dropped gradually ever since that time. In more recent years, the upper Chess has dried up completely in the Summer, on numerous occasions. This year for instance, you can use the stream bed as a footpath. As I say, I can't prove a thing. Over abstraction almost certainly comes into it, and who knows what else. What I DO know is that NONE of the fish had any problems at all moving up and down over the small weirs, and prior to being 'improved', it did not, in my time at least, dry up.
Now, if this problem with the Chess is actually down to over abstraction, then that means that the springs of the head water, the source on the edge of the town, will cease to flow enough to form a decent river, and what trickle there is will have soaked into the gravel and disappeared within a mile or two. Now forgive me if my lack of knowledge of such things leads me astray here, but it seems to me that if you have a series of small weirs down the length of such a river, that meager flow will slowly build up behind those weirs until it overflows, and so on down the line, meaning you will have a reasonable depth of water to support riverine life down the entire length, until the refreshing rains return and bring back the stronger flow...which usually doesn't take too long, this being England
. However, if you remove those weirs, and then over abstraction does it's dirty work, you WILL end up with a dry river...and a whole mass of dead trout, and everything else that once lived in it. Which is exactly what has happened on the upper stretch of the Chess. Removing weirs in larger rivers may well work fine, they have enough diverse sources of water along their length to maintain a flow almost always, but on a small stream with limited feeders? NOT such a good idea. What do ya think? Possible? Naaa, way too far fetched isn't it
It's all very fine to talk about returning a river to its 'natural' state, removing obstacles to fish migration, and all that stuff. But, if over abstraction is an issue (and it invariably is now) then surely there simply is no longer enough water for that to happen on smaller rivers....you simply don't have enough water to work with. It seems to me that all you are doing by removing small weirs on small rivers is getting rid of what little water you have, as fast as you possibly can. The other works done on these projects obviously helps, narrowing time widened beds, creating diverters and riffles, etc, etc...but removing weirs? Hmmmmm. If we really want to help the situation, we need to stop the localised over abstraction (It IS after all the REAL problem...and it could be done if we care enough). We can then carry on with these lovely 'restoring to nature' plans to our hearts content...and they Will work then, because you will have enough water and natural flow to achieve your aim. In my opinion.
Cheers, Dave.