Partner feature - River Holme Connections
Over the past 6 months, River Holme Connections has, with the help of a band of volunteers, been visiting and mapping barriers in the Holme catchment, as part of Great Yorkshire Rivers Partnership work.
Formed in 2015, River Holme Connections dedicated team is working to transform the River Holme catchment for the benefit of people and wildlife.
Map of the River Holme Catchment
Supported by a team of 16 volunteers, a total of 54 obstacles were surveyed, and of those, the team identified that 34 obstacles presented a barrier to fish moving up and down the river, 9 of which were barriers not listed on the river obstacles database.
Of the data recorded, the team also discovered that 18 weirs had either gone or collapsed to the point where they no longer presented a barrier to fish. Finally, they also established that 6 ‘natural waterfalls’ were actually man-made weirs and could potentially be removed/adapted for fish passage in the future.
This new project work has generated a lot of interest among volunteers, who clocked up an impressive 80 volunteer hours over the 6-month period. The surveys contribute to the development of a robust, scalable, and value-driven data infrastructure which will underlie the planning to address barriers to fish passage within Yorkshire, a key goal of the Great Yorkshire Rivers project. It has also helped the team develop positive relationships with local landowners.
We caught up with Penny Kirk, Assistant River Ranger at River Holme Connections to learn more about this barrier mapping exercise.
“This work has helped us to build a clear picture of the barriers to fish passage within the River Holme catchment. We’re very grateful to all the brilliant volunteers who have helped and for their skills in measuring weirs armed with long tape measures and giant rulers while staying on their feet in the river!
We’ve had lots of questions from members of the public who are interested in finding out more about what we’re doing – but we were all surprised to find we had an eager audience of pigs keenly watching us in one section! We were just pleased that they didn’t decide to join us in the river!
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Thanks to the invaluable work of River Holme Connections and their team of volunteers, there are plenty of exciting developments to come. In collaboration with Calder & Colne Rivers Trust, they have identified 9 weirs that are key priorities for removal.
Next steps will include further landowner engagement, planning for the removal or improving fish passage on 3 of the priority structures and undertaking more surveys higher up in the catchment.
River Holme Connections is a charity which relies on donations and volunteers. To learn more about their work, or to volunteer your time, please visit their website Home - River Holme Connections