Trent Rivers Trust have been restoring sections of the River Mease at Edingale and Croxall. These works began on the 2 x 1km stretches of river in September 2020 and were just over halfway completed before being paused for the wet winter weather. They were completed in Spring 2021. This scheme is part of the wider River Mease restoration Project to help bring the River Mease SAC back to favourable condition.

Reprofiled riverbanks
Edingale to Croxall River Restoration Bank re-profiling here provides extra capacity in the channel for high flows whilst offering fish refuge in backwaters behind the vegetation in the more diverse flow patterns. It creates extra capacity for sediment deposition inside meanders, which helps prevent too much deposition on the river bed.

Gravel introduction
Gravel introduction in these sections raise the bed level to create riffles to provide more oxygen and better breeding habitat to fish in silted up areas. Gravels change base flow dynamics, they dislodge fine sediments and silts, moving them through the river system reducing the flood risk from silt build up.

Woody debris
Large woody debris introduction on straightened sections of the river act as flow deflectors, which pushes the flow through a narrower low flow channel, allowing sediment to be flushed out of the straight wide channel. High flows can continue to flow over the wood so they aren’t a flood risk.

Funding
Thanks to Drotlor Plant Ltd, Boreal Tree Care, Pioneer Environment and Benchmark Archaeology

The site is subject to extensive monitoring which will tell us more about the effectiveness of the scheme and help inform future projects.