We’re delighted to announce that PARR (Pewsey Avon River Restoration) is the latest urban river restoration group to become an accredited Trout in the Town chapter.
When Theo Pike, our Trout in the Town officer for the south of England, undertook an Advisory Visit for the upper Avon in Pewsey (Wiltshire) recently, he identified a number of important improvements that a motivated community group could make to boost the health of the river for fish, insects, birds – and local people too.
These range from relatively simple measures (like reducing the impact of mowing and strimming, so that plants can prevent excessive erosion by binding banks together with strong root systems) to more ambitious schemes (like using gravel and Large Woody Material to re-meander the stream within its current hard-sided channel). The full report can be downloaded here.
Better still, by asking for this Advisory Visit and having Stuart Murray in place as project leader, PARR is already at the stage where the group can be awarded ‘First Contact’ status in the Trout in the Town accreditation scheme.
And like our recently-accredited chapters on the Rivers Holme, Dearne and Worth, it’s easy to see how this group can quickly develop to the next levels of accreditation — Bronze, Silver and Gold – as local support grows and activities develop.
In the meantime, congratulations to PARR on this important milestone!
If you’ve got an idea for an urban river project, or you’d like your existing urban river group to be accredited with the Wild Trout Trust, please contact Theo or Paul.
You can also visit our Trout in the Town page to find out more.
