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We are working in to improve the resilience of the watercourse in the Dover Beck catchment. This means we are looking at ways to help the area cope better with the impact that borehole abstraction has on the watercourse and surrounding habitat. Our aim is to tackle some of the issues the watercourses experiences, due to artificially low water levels in the headwaters of Dover Beck. These particularly impact the watercourse during dry periods when the water is naturally low in the catchment.
This is why increasing the catchment’s resilience to dry weather conditions is vital. To help reduce the impact on ecology and habitat, the work will focus on bringing the river closest to its natural function. While the focus lies on improving things during dry periods, the work will also boost biodiversity and habitat availability throughout the entire year.
This two-and-a-half-year project, led by Trent Rivers Trust in partnership with Severn Trent Water, will deliver works aimed at restoring ecological resilience. It uses a practical river and catchment restoration approach.
We will focus on the area near the Oxton bogs to help hold water, where the impact of abstraction is felt the most. This is to naturalise flows and hold water in the catchment where abstraction (for public use) impacts the river ecology the most.
Works in the upper and middle reaches will focus on water retention and floodplain reconnection to enable natural flow regimes to recover and utilise water from the wider catchment.
Like most watercourses in the UK, the Dover Beck is designated as ‘heavily modified’, with large sections of straightened, over-widened channel. This means that it cannot hold the water as effectively as it would in a more natural state, reducing the amount and diversity of wildlife in the stream.
Restoring natural flows and water retention capacity within the catchment will be vital to alleviate the impact of the abstraction. Reconnecting the watercourse with its floodplain to better store water and improve habitats will help more water to be accessible to wildlife and increase biodiversity. Wetlands with scrapes, hollows, ponds and connecting channels will be used and introduced to enable the greatest possible area for water retention across the catchment.
Improving riverbanks and in-channel habitats will also contribute towards greater resilience for all manner of species, including migratory fish, water voles, invertebrates and birds. To do this, natural processes will be encouraged to develop with the introduction of brushwood mattresses and large woody debris, alongside riverbank re-profiling to improve natural flows and encourage natural erosion and deposition to take place. Where possible, hard substances such as concrete will be removed from the watercourse.
We are aiming to deliver improvements to habitats both within the water and along riverbanks. We will also work towards creating new wetland areas. The project is engaging with as many landowners as possible and will look to deliver restoration and improvement works at many of these sites.
To understand the impact, the project will include detailed monitoring of flow levels, turbidity concentrations (suspended sediments) and temperature, as well as invertebrates and fish. This will take place before, during, and after the project work is complete.
River morphology surveys will also indicate general habitat availability and changes. Desired outcomes will be: evidence of more stable flows and fewer low flow conditions during stressful periods, lower overall water temperatures and suspended solids, and greater diversity of invertebrate numbers and of fish species and ages.
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