Meldreth
The group was initially formed to restore a relatively short stretch of the river in Meldreth. As we were a new group with little or no experience of river restoration, we were fortunate in receiving a lot of support and advice from the Environment Agency and the District Council’s Ecology Officer. A report commissioned by the Environment Agency and produced by the River Restoration Centre, outlining the restoration that was required and suggesting a variety of soft engineering techniques that could be used, formed the basis of our first project.
Following the submission of detailed plans, Environmental Agency Drainage Consent for our proposed improvements was received in August 2006, and our first work party took place in September 2006. The first stretch that we tackled was a 200 metre length downstream of the railway bridge. A small band of enthusiastic volunteers tried the various suggested techniques in order to see which worked best on our river. This learning process has proved invaluable as the project has progressed, as certain techniques worked much better on our river than others.
Given that we only meet in Meldreth once every six weeks the work progressed quickly, with us having to plan and gain permissions for a further stretch of restoration work in 2007. Although this is still under way, we have now restored several hundred metres of river and have also installed three gravel riffles as potential breeding grounds for brown trout. As a result of these works, the silt continues to clear and native marginal plants are colonising the new revetments.