How can trees and woods and rivers and streams help each other?
We have an East Devon Forest Plan, put together in 2018 by the Forestry Commission – and the last section looks at “Riparian Management” – where “all watercourses and riverine areas will be managed sensitively to protect and enhance water and soil quality in line with best practice”.
And the Devon Local Nature Partnership looks at enhancing Devon’s landscapes today, also looking at riparian trees and wet woodland as part of the mix.
Other bodies are considering woods and rivers, with the Woodland Trust keen to restore and plant river woodland and the Rivers Trust developing its Woodlands for Water project with its partners, including the Westcountry Rivers Trust, who are working on projects along the Tamar and Fowey.
And there’s a very impressive bit of guidance from Forest Research on creating and managing riparian woodland:
They are critical to the natural functioning of freshwater ecosystems and form an important habitat in their own right.
The interaction between running water, tree roots and fallen wood, as well as other forms of natural and semi-natural vegetation, creates the complex and dynamic aquatic and wetland habitat mosaic needed for characteristic plants and animals to thrive.
Riparian trees and woodlands are also increasingly valued for providing a range of environmental benefits. These include stabilising stream banks and reducing channel erosion, controlling sediment and nutrient inputs from the adjacent land, regulating water temperature
Here’s a very interesting little project reported by the Devon Wildlife Trust last week – asking What has holly got to do with salmon conservation?
Salmon are known for their epic journey that sees them return to the same stretch of river where they hatched, sometimes leaping over 3 metres in the air to pass obstacles such as waterfalls and weirs.
However, our Atlantic salmon populations are currently under threat due to factors like river pollution and habitat loss. Following woodland management at our Dunsford nature reserve, staff and volunteers used leftover smaller branches and twigs from holly trees to create these dead hedges which will protect the riverbank, reduce the impacts of further erosion, and safeguard an active spawning site for salmon on the River Teign.
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with this work, which will support the conservation of this important and threatened species as they make their impressive upstream migration.
What has holly got to do with salmon conservation?
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