A MAJOR natural flood management project has been completed along the River Eden.
Eden Rivers Trust, on behalf of the North Pennines AONB Partnership who lead the Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme (LPS) has worked with farmers to complete a 'ground-breaking' programme of natural flood management on streams flowing into the River Eden.
At 80 miles long, the River Eden has five sub catchments in the Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme (LPS) area: Glassonby, Raven, Gelt, Croglin Water and Cairn Beck.
The Better Becks project began in April 2020 and has seen tree planting, riparian fencing, leaky dams, and ‘re-wiggling’ stretches of river that have been straightened in the past.
READ MORE: Aldi donates thousands of meals in Cumbria
All these measures will slow the flow of flood water, helping to reduce flooding risk to communities downstream, and making the Fellfoot Forward landscape more resilient to climate change for years to come.
69 volunteers have been involved in the work that has seen 6,660 trees planted, 230 metres length of river restored, 99 hectares of woodland restored and 6,748 square metres of wetland created.
Jenny Garbe, Better Becks project manager said: “The Better Becks project gave us the rare opportunity to attract funding from a wide range of sources that would allow us to create an exciting programme of natural flood management and river restoration work that could be spread over three years to tackle some of the key issues in this area such as flood risk to communities, poor water quality and disconnected, degraded habitats.
"What’s great about this project is that the benefits will only keep getting better over time. Only ten months after completion, we’ve already seen natural river erosion and deposition, regeneration, tree growth, and wildflowers emerging. We have also seen footage of otter, polecat, and badgers using the Townfoot site and I’m looking forward to doing fish surveys later this year to see what species have moved into the new channel," she said.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here