A relatively large habitat project on the Kennet at Barton Court undertaken in partnership with the  Environment Agency and English Nature (the major funders). The goal is to bring habitat on the stretch - which was heavily engineered - up to the standard that one would expect to find on a river with the statutory classification that the Kennet enjoys. This is the first scheme of a longer-term project to improve the rivers chalk stream characteristics.

The scheme involved removing artificial impoundments and bank materials, then reducing the size of the river by re-aligning and re-profiling the banks and be reinstating the gravel bed.

The aim is to produce a channel that behaves more naturally and which possesses characteristic chalkstream features, including fast flowing water, a clean gravel bed and good instream plant, fish and invertebrate populations. This will help restore the ecological value of a nationally important site and improve a degraded chalk stream fishery.

The fishery offers day tickets and wishes to move away from stocking on those stretches that are part of the habitat scheme.

The first scheme has been successfully completed with a construction cost of £93k. This involved overcoming very difficult conditions on what was, in ecological terms, a particularly badly degraded section of river. The channel narrowing utilised relatively soft revetment techniques and largely biodegradable materials, whilst the bed raising involved importing naturally occurring stone and gravel. In less than a year the finished scheme was starting to naturalise and soften, particularly with the encroachment of terrestrial vegetation.
The second scheme, immediately downstream of the first, is nearing completion at this time."

Funding from WTT was spent on wet work, in particular replacement of lost gravels. 

Further information on this project can be obtained from the Environment Agency Project Manager David Ludford on 01491 828333

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