Trees blocking Rivers

[scraggs]

Dedham is down river from Boxted.

 

I know what I meant

[woody paul]

I know what I meant

 

Lovely stretch of river from Flatford up to Stratford st Mary work on it three years ago pollarding willows.

[Wood wasp]

It makes sense to have features in watercourses but couple rivers up here are heavily choked with fallen trees, once they're covered in debris they're more or less a series of dams.

 

I'm no flood engineer, and there may be other reasons, but flooding upstream would certainly seem to have got worse over the years. Whatever impact other issues have on flooding I would think the fact that water can't get away doesn't help.

[openboater]

Trees in rivers are seen as an important asset for biodiversity and flood reduction.

 

Many are now left in as large woody debris (LWD). LWD creates shelter for fish, invertabrates and creates areas of differing depth due to scouring of the river bed. The increased flow around them also cleans gravels providing spawning sites for fish and suitable areas for certain nymphs to live.

 

They reduce flooding by reducing the effects of canalisation and dredging. Dredging gives only a short term effect against flooding as all that water rushing down has to back up somewhere and drop its load of suspended silt from washed off farmland so dredging becomes a vicious circle.

 

LWD stabilises the flow, creates pockets where silt can settle naturally and reduces the wash off from farmland.

 

Hopefully gone are the days, which hark back to the 60s, of creating sterile and prone to flooding waterways. Those land drainage engineers have a lot to answer for!

 

The Wild Trout Trust produced a video showing the effects of the above which demonstrates beautifully the disastrous effects of dredging. I shall try and find a link to it.

 

I work for the EA.

I clear trees and debris blockages from rivers.

The points you make are all valid SOME of the time but please don't assume that they are a universal fix-all.

If we allowed debris to accumulate in any of the areas where I commonly work a short heavy storm could result in bridges being damaged or perhaps destroyed.

Fallen trees have the potential to block our tidal outfall structures, which can in turn allow sea water to enter our river systems. This can adversely alter the balance of wildlife in sensitive areas and put homes at risk of flooding.

Just wanting to present the flipside

[Graham]

I work for the EA.

I clear trees and debris blockages from rivers.

The points you make are all valid SOME of the time but please don't assume that they are a universal fix-all.

If we allowed debris to accumulate in any of the areas where I commonly work a short heavy storm could result in bridges being damaged or perhaps destroyed.

Fallen trees have the potential to block our tidal outfall structures, which can in turn allow sea water to enter our river systems. This can adversely alter the balance of wildlife in sensitive areas and put homes at risk of flooding.

Just wanting to present the flipside

 

 

Wasn't assuming that they are a fix-all but to demonstrate that the fact that obstructions aren't all bad. There still persists the notion that watercourses should be clear or else all our property is going to be inundated.

[hedgesparrow]

as a earlier post need to get hold of local EA and let them know. will want if poss grid reference where the trees are. but its the reparian owners job to clear them at his cost. if the Ea think these trees will cause flooding and looking at photos doing a good job holding back a lot of rubbish then they can ask the reparian owner to remove them. if they do not they will do it and charge them for the work.

i doubt if the EA know of these trees. not many feet on patrol now.

[Wood wasp]

Thanks for your post Openboater, great to see different options being deployed as and when required.

 

I realise it's hard to cover all angles in one post on a forum but when I saw couple people posting about leaving trees in water my heart sunk... I very much feared another "native woodland" scenario was developing!

[AHPP]

That one is stratford side just before the flumes, there are several down on that side between there and stratford but that is the only one right across, then the other side of the flumes heading to boxted we came across another small one right across and decided to turn around and head up to dedham, but some friends we met coming down said there were a few that side aswell.

 

Lovely river for a paddle, we have just been doing a small stretch for a few hours each time and slowly making our way up.

 

I paddled from Stratford to Langham flumes today. Saw some stacked willow brash and sideways stumps that look to have been cut within the last two or three days. The stretch was clear. It's Sudbury to the Sea is this weekend and I think the maintained navigation all gets checked and cleared (weed mainly) in preparation.

[edwood]

I hate trees in rivers

 

But I hate trees in canals even more!