Tag Archives: Wandle Catchment Plan

Goat Bridge Weir and Level Testing

There is a water level test taking place on the Wandle at Goat Road and we wanted you to be aware.

Plans for the Millfields Redrow development include alterations to Goat Bridge Weir which will improve the habitat and fish passage on the Wandle.

Over the next month, the Environment Agency will be investigating the impact that current river levels have on Spencer Road Wetlands. This will help inform the future plans for Goat Bridge Weir.

The weir will be lowered from today (8th October) and it will be raised again on the 22nd October 2018. During this time, you will see gradual changes to the water levels in this stretch.

Please read the full statement from the Environment Agency here:

EA Goat Bridge Weir Statement

Giving eels a helping hand on the Wandle

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In 2017, we delivered the Wandle Eel Project in partnership with the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Environment Agency, Zoological Society London (ZSL), National Trust, and Wandsworth Borough Council.

Why?

European eels (Anguilla anguilla) once thrived in London’s rivers but the number of young joining the adult populations have dropped by over 95% since the 1980s and the species has been classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2008.

One of the major threats to eels in freshwater are barriers to upstream migration such as weirs and sluice gates that reduce the amount of habitat available for eels to grow and mature.

What’s been going on?

This project aimed to improve eel passage along the Wandle by installing eel passes at six locations where structures were a complete or partial barrier to migration. All installations were completed by Wandle Trust staff and assisted by local volunteers.

1. In June 2017, the existing eel pass at Morden Hall Park was repaired, extended and fitted with a monitoring trap. This site was then used by ZSL to train local volunteers, and National Trust staff to monitor elver migration along the Wandle.

2. The Topps Tiles tiles site in Earlsfield was delivered in December 2017 (in the snow), which included a row of lift out eel tiles with upstream deflector, and a section of low profile bed tiles on an adjacent channel. This site was testing the improved steel brackets which were fabricated by a local contractor/volunteer. These installations were designed as ‘easements’ to allow eels to navigate the fast flowing sections of the heavily modified concrete channels. Two old, defunct eel passes were disassembled and removed from site.

3. The Trewint Street easement was installed in December 2017, and consisted of a 30 m section of the new ‘low profile’ bed tiles that were commissioned for this project, with a short section of flexible bristles to navigate over a 300 mm wooden baulk at the upstream end. This has provided an additional route up the left hand channel which offers a less turbulent route than the fish pass in the right hand channel.

4. The eel pass at EDF was installed during Dec 2017/Jan 2018 with a 15 m section of ‘low profile’ bed tiles. As some high tides overtop the weir, these works were designed to increase the range of time/tides that this structure would be passable to elvers.

5. Improvements to an existing eel pass upstream of Ravensbury Park were installed in March 2018. An extension piece was added at the upstream end to prevent debris blockages. At the downstream end, a deflector plate was added to reduce turbulence, and four standard bed tiles were installed to direct eels towards the pass entrance.

6. This gravity fed eel pass was installed on a small side channel near Poulter Park in March 2018. This was a cheaper and more secure alternative to a pass that had previously been stolen.

We would like to give a huge thanks to all our volunteers who helped install these passes and those who are continuing to monitor eel numbers during the current season!

Joint Press Release: Brown Trout in River Wandle Hit by Pump Failures

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After the Carshalton Arm of the Wandle suffered low flows for another year (pictured above), we joined Tom Brake, the Environment Agency, SES Water and local Councillors, Jill Whitehead and Chris Williams, on the banks of the Wandle to discuss how we can better safeguard this precious south London chalkstream in the future.

Read the full joint Press Release below

With the River Wandle’s brown trout population hit-for-six after SES Water’s pumps failed, leaving trout eggs exposed to the air, Tom Brake convened a top-level meeting with representatives from SES Water, the Environment Agency, and the South East Rivers Trust, as well as Councillors Jill Whitehead and Chris Williams.

During the walkabout along the river bank to see the work undertaken by volunteers, SES Water agreed to put in place plans to stop future pump failures and to safeguard the River Wandle’s brown trout. SES Water and EA representatives also agreed to work with the South East Rivers Trust to ensure that the Wandle’s Carshalton arm is returned to its “Good Ecological Potential” status.

Tom Brake MP said:

“We have a collective responsibility to ensure that the river is restored to its nationally significant flagship standing.

“I want to thank the Wandle and South East Rivers Trust and all of its volunteers for being so committed to the health of the river. I am pleased to see that SES Water and the Environment Agency are working together with the Trust to ensure that the brown trout thrives and appropriate water levels are maintained.”

Bella Davies, Director of the Wandle Trust and South East Rivers Trust said:

“We are pleased that SES Water is committed to ensuring the River Wandle in Carshalton keeps flowing. The Wandle Trust has been working with the local community for many years to restore the Wandle, making it more resilient to drought and the pressures of its urban surroundings, but it’s all for nothing if there’s no water in the river.

“Water consumption in SES Water’s area is one of the highest per person in the country, and we can all do our bit to save water so that a little bit more can flow down the Wandle. In the meantime, the Trust will continue to work with SES Water and local people to help restore the local fish populations which have suffered as a result of these incidents at the pumping station”.

SES Water Managing Director Anthony Ferrar said:

“As a local Company we take our environmental responsibilities extremely seriously so we welcomed the opportunity to discuss the River Wandle and reiterate our commitment to balancing the impact of our essential activities. Over the last two years we have focussed on improving the resilience of the pumping station and are currently putting more contingency measures in place. We have also again offered for our staff to contribute their time through our ‘Give a Day’ scheme which helps strengthen our relationships with local organisations. As part of the National Environment Programme (NEP), we will continue to work with the Environment Agency, Thames Water and the South East Rivers Trust to assess options to further improve the ecological status of the River Wandle.”

For the past three years, the Carshalton arm of the Wandle River has experienced a significant drop in water levels due to malfunctions in the recirculation system monitored by SES Water. With conditions worsening, Carshalton residents have expressed extreme concern over the status of the river, a focal point of the town.

In order to maintain the vibrant ecology of the river, the South East Rivers Trust assumed responsibility in 2015 for restoring adequate water flow, water temperature, and the brown trout population to the Carshalton arm. In 2016, their rehabilitation of the River Wandle’s Carshalton arm won the Urban Category of the 2016 UK River Prize. However, due to continuous problems with the recirculation system, the improvements made by the South East Rivers Trust have regressed, leaving the river in a poorer ecological state.

For more information on the award-winning restoration of the Wandle River, visit https://www.southeastriverstrust.org/award-winning-restoration-on-the-wandle/

Introducing the new Wandle Invasive Species Action Plan

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Our Wandle Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) Project has reached an exciting stage – the launch of the new Wandle INNS Action Plan.

The Wandle INNS Project is part of the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership, and has been running since April 2015 with our INNS Officer, Alan Martin, at the steering wheel.

Over the last two years, Alan has spent a lot of time out on the Wandle getting up close and personal with INNS such as Himalayan Balsam, Japanese Knotweed, Floating Pennywort and Giant Hogweed. These BIG FOUR have been the primary focus of the INNS Project as they are well-established on the Wandle and pose risks to wildlife and the local community.

From his time in the field, Alan has concluded the most effective control/management methods for these plants, and has written an updated INNS Action Plan for the Wandle. This plan is available to all, showcasing recommended control methods for INNS on the Wandle, INNS ID guidance, INNS biology and lots of other useful stuff.

The plan also includes a new online map of INNS records for the Wandle, collected by our trained River Rangers.

Our River Rangers have been trained to identify invasive plants and monitor the Wandle roughly 4 times a year. If you are interested in joining this team, the more the merrier, just email Polly on volunteers@wandletrust.org.

The data our River Rangers collect for us has been included in the INNS Action Plan to help us map out how INNS on the Wandle can be managed over the next 8 years.

The Key:

The plan was presented to major landowners and stakeholders (including the local councils, National Trust and London Wildlife Trust) at an INNS Must Out Workshop in February this year. Here everyone signed up to help deliver the plan. A very positive outcome for INNS on the Wandle.

Here at the Wandle Trust, we have signed up to help kick start the action on the ground, working with our volunteer River Rangers and newly appointed Hit Squad. The next few blogs will show you all we have been up to and the difference the project is making to the Wandle.

Low Water Levels in Carshalton Ponds

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Did you know that in times of dry weather, when groundwater levels drop, the top of the Wandle in Carshalton is kept flowing artificially?

We all need water to drink and wash, and in Carshalton, at the top of the Wandle, the water in our homes is provided by SES Water (who have recently changed their name from Sutton and East Surrey Water Company).

The water that comes out of our taps is the same water that springs out of the chalky geology of the North Downs as the source of the River Wandle. SES Water has a licence to abstract some of this water from the chalk aquifer and supply it to us for domestic use. But as part of this licence, they also have to ensure there is enough water in the River Wandle (because there are lots of species of insects, birds and fish in the river which need flowing water).

To do this when the aquifer is low and the springs are not flowing (usually in late summer), SES turns on an artificial recirculation system which pumps water from the Wandle just north of Goat Bridge up to Carshalton Ponds, where it replenishes the Carshalton arm of the river. Without this system, the Carshalton arm of the Wandle would be dry for much of the year.

As you may have noticed, Carshalton Ponds have been getting drier recently. We think this is because there are some cracks in the edges and bottom of the Ponds, which mean that when SES Water pump water into the Ponds, it seeps back into the ground before it can get out of the lower Pond and flow down the Wandle. This is causing SES Water to fail their licence requirements to keep the Wandle flowing, so at present they need to pump most of the water straight into the river below the cascade in Grove Park, with a small flow to the Ponds to top them up.

SES Water, the Environment Agency (EA) and Sutton Council are now working together to plan and deliver restorative works to the ponds and rectify the issue as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we can all do our bit by trying to save water. Look out for our exhibition coming up in Sutton Library (July 2017) where you can learn more about the past and present sources of the river, and simple actions we can all take to save water and help the Wandle.

Update: The Council were able to make repairs to the ponds and Sutton and East Surrey Water started pumping water back into the ponds on Sunday 9th April.

Floating Pennywort on the Wandle

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Alan Martin, our Invasive Non-Native Species Officer, has been very busy this last growing season. Working with our trained River Rangers to map all invasive plants on the Wandle, and with the newly trained Hit Squad to start controlling them, we are making great progress.

One species we’ve had some great success with is floating pennywort. This aquatic invasive plant can be found along the river from Carshalton to Wandworth. Alan has developed and implemented a combined manual and chemical approach to tackle this species from its source in Sutton, and work until it is out of the river in Wandsworth. While this is going swimmingly, he has also looked at two sites on the Wandle where pennywort has a stronghold: Watermeads and Ravensbury Park.

At Watermeads, the floating pennywort had infested a large backwater, a potentially key habitat for river wildlife with added aesthetic, recreational and ecological benefits. Working with the National Trust, Alan set to develop a management regime for this habitat to maintain it as an open water and keep pennywort at bay.

So how did we do it?

Manual Removal

To reduce overall biomass, several hand pulling events were held with volunteers from the National Trust and Wandle Trust – you may recall the epic Battle of Watermeads? Rafts of pennywort were cut away and towed to the bank using long grapple lines. The pennywort was then wheelbarrowed to a site away from the river where it would be left undisturbed to rot away.

Foliar spraying

After reducing the initial biomass, herbicide was then used on the regrowth. With Environment Agency permission, Alan and Richard (from the National Trust) applied the first spray of herbicide in February this year.

With this combined approach, open water was achieved!

Continued monitoring

The secret to this work is that the work actually never stops. As long as there is a source of pennyworth on the Wandle, there is a risk the backwater could become re-infested. The local angling club at Watermeads and the National Trust volunteers have taken ownership of this site and continue to check for signs of pennywort, pulling out new plants. By keeping on top of it this way, it should never reach the scale it was back in 2015.

So what’s next?

Working with Merton Council and the Friends of Ravensbury Park, we are starting a similar management plan on the lake in Ravensbury Park which has been full of pennywort for years. Watch this space!

Freelance Teachers Wanted

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As part of our new education programme, Project Kingfisher, we are looking to recruit two freelance teachers on the River Wandle.

Project Kingfisher is designed to raise awareness about the River Wandle by engaging children and young people with the river and incorporating it into their lessons. It has been funded through the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership.

Last year Project Kingfisher engaged nearly 4000 students, visiting 23 schools in the Wandle catchment. We hope to exceed this in the next academic year and the freelance teachers will play a large role in this, enabling delivery of the project to more schools. More information on Project Kingfisher can be found on our website: www.wandletrust.org/education

To find out more about the available positions, download our Role Description below.

Freelance Teacher Role Description

Details on how to apply can be found on the role description. The application deadline is Monday 24th October at noon, with interviews likely to take place the week commencing 31st October.

If you have any questions about the role or application process, please call our Education Officer on 07468 529 312 or email david.gill@wandletrust.org

Parrot’s Feather in Beddington Park

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The River Wandle has its problems when it comes to invasive non-native species. Floating pennywort is well established, Himalayan balsam can be found up and down the river, and Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed are well spread too. Therefore when it comes to the control of these, progress can be slow.

But it is a different story for Parrot’s Feather!

Parrot’s Feather is an aquatic invasive plant native to central and south America.

Parrot’s Feather loves to grow in still or slow moving water bodies, and because of this it became a popular plant for gardens and aquariums. However, like so many of these introduced species, Parrot’s Feather escaped and has become established in the wild.

The plant can quickly grow to cover small waterbodies, displacing native species and blocking out sunlight to the water below. In slow moving waters, it can cause flooding by blocking up watercourses and drainage channels.

Luckily on the Wandle we only had one record of Parrot’s Feather, and that was in Manor Pond at Beddington Park. To ensure there was no further spread, we worked with Sutton Council to organise a volunteer day to remove the plant, every last stem!

Our five lucky volunteers, Ed, Dave, Wally and Phil, joined our INNS Officer Alan and Louise from the Living Wandle team to manually remove the plant.

While our volunteers worked, our Education Officer ran a number of activities for families passing by to raise awareness about invasive non-native species.

To start things off, Alan set up nets to catch any stray bits of Parrot’s Feather that might break away during the works. This helped ensure we wouldn’t spread the plant any further. Vegetation was cut back so we could be extra sure none was hiding anywhere.

Then it was time to grapple and fork it out. Back breaking work… or so I heard…

It took 3 hours but all the Parrot’s Feather was removed, and Sutton Council’s Parks Team came and collected the plant to be disposed of.

So the classic before and after…

The Wandle’s a Winner!

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We’re delighted to announce that we are a category winner in the 2016 UK River Prize. The Carshalton arm of the Wandle has won the ‘Urban Project’ category and is one of four category winners who will now go forward as finalists for the overall river prize.

The overall UK River Prize will be announced at an awards dinner at the River Restoration Centre’s Annual Conference in Blackpool on the 26^th April.

You can read the River Restoration Centre’s press release here (UK_River_Prize_Finalists) to see the other category winners and finalists who we’re up against. Each finalist will make a short video about their project which will be shown at the awards dinner.

Keep your fingers crossed!!

Wandle cleanup: December 2015: King George’s Park

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The one with the return of Miss Evans…

The year has gone very fast indeed and before we knew it, the last cleanup of 2015 was upon us. For December we went to King Georges Park in Wandsworth. With the Event Tent decked with tinsel and my reindeer antlers on, I was joined by 30 volunteers on a chilly Sunday morning. After the usual Health & Safety briefing we got started, with half of us getting in the river and the other half working from the banks.

Within 10 minutes, a bicycle had been sighted, collected and placed on the start of the rubbish pile by Santa. An excellent start.

While on the banks we were discussing Christmas shopping, and how far behind we all were, with the idea that maybe the Wandle could be our solution? Although I imagine we’d be less than impressed if Santa’s sack really was filled with soggy gifts from the Wandle. Olaf flip flop anyone?

To distract us all from the cold, we became magpies, closely inspecting what we were pulling out of the Wandle, looking for some special Christmas finds. I discovered this old style Fanta can which no one else seemed quite as excited about..

We found the usual coconut…

As well as what we believe was a Nativity scene Mary, minus the head…

By 1pm, we were all ready for a cup of tea to warm up and to try some of Ann’s carrot cake which she kindly made for us all. Much to our delight, we were visited by a Christmas Angel during lunch – Erica Evans! As lots of our volunteers will remember, Erica organised our Wandle cleanups for many years and happened to be visiting London this weekend, so she thought she’d pay us a visit!

We didn’t stop for long with the chilly weather, and so back in the river we went. The waders continued upstream to the next bridge, clearing over 300m of river. Some afternoon finds included:

This metal chair, which I have been informed is a welding chair.

This brightly coloured figurine which I was told was a Shirdi Buba (learning lots at this cleanup)

And some large heavy shed roof sheets which had absorbed so much water they were a real challenge to get out so late in the day. Trust Derek to find something just as we were finishing up!

Last year 518 volunteers pulled out 8.5 tonnes of rubbish from the Wandle, donating 2012 hours of their time to the cause. Have we beaten this for 2015? Stayed tuned over the Christmas break to find out!

So what did we find? 1 frisbee, 1 motorbike dashboard, 1 Olaf flip flop, 1 railway sleeper, 1 70” record, 1 radio, 1 television, 1 vintage Fanta can, 1 sun lounger, 1 welding chair, 1 generic chair, 2 bicycles, 4 pillows, 5 tyres, 5 umbrellas, lots of wire and bags and bags of other junk.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Ann for catering for our volunteers (cheese scones and carrot cake!), Wally for supervising the Event Tent and the Waste Management Team at Wandsworth Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Aaron, Ann, Barry, Charles, Chris, Dave, David, Derek, Ed ,Guy, James, Jamie, Jane, John, Louise, Marina , Mike, Nick , Paul, Per, Phil, Sally, Simon, Theo, Tom, Victor, Wally, Xilano and Zoe.

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? That no one reads the email blast! My request for Christmas attire was missed on everyone..