Tweed Forum continues to deliver this long-term strategy to improve the River Till SSSI and SAC, in partnership with the Environment Agency and Natural England (the River Till Restoration Partnership)
Background
The River Till and its main tributaries the Bowmont-Glen, Breamish and Wooler Water are of high conservation and ecological importance. About 130 km of these rivers is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) due to the presence of otter, Atlantic salmon, three species of lamprey (sea, river and brook), as well as the characteristic river morphology which supports floating vegetation often dominated by water-crowfoot.
However, the ‘condition’ of these designated rivers is not as it should be. Using national criteria, the SSSI is classed as being in ‘unfavourable condition’; in some areas the condition is ‘declining’. The principal reason for the SSSI being in unfavourable condition is the physical state of the river channel.
Actions to deliver the River Till Restoration Strategy (RTRS)
Since 2013, Tweed Forum have been delivering the recommended measures within the River Till Restoration Strategy which help the natural recovery of the river system across the catchment and the long-term goal of moving the SSSI towards favourable condition.
The implementation phase of the RTRS is currently managed as a partnership between Tweed Forum, the Environment Agency and Natural England. The partnership is currently working on a number of restoration projects in key river reaches, with several of these projects outlined below.
Harehope Restoration Project
In one of the largest river restoration projects in the UK, Tweed Forum has been working closely with Harehope Estate, the Environment Agency and Natural England to reinstate natural processes on the River Breamish in Northumberland (south of the town of Wooler). Using techniques such as re-meandering, floodplain reconnection, habitat creation (shallow ponds, wetlands), embankment breaches and installation of silt traps and woody dams (which will deflect flow in the new channels), the project has created a more natural mosaic of habitats to aid nature recovery, improve water quality and increase resilience to climate change.
You can read more about this exciting restoration initiative over on our Harehope Restoration Project page.
Haugh Head Ford
This structure remains the final significant artificial barrier to upstream fish passage in the Till catchment and, as such, is a high priority for resolution through the RTRS.
“Reconnecting the Wooler Water” is an innovative collaborative project to remove this major barrier to salmon migration on the Wooler Water and restore the river to a more natural state. You can find out more about how we are progressing restoration measures at Haugh Head Ford over on our Reconnecting the Wooler Water page.
River Glen Restoration and Flood Risk Management Project
The River Glen is a high-energy river that is constrained to a single channel, but has a propensity to switch course (through the process of “avulsion”). Since 2008 the River Glen has been exceptionally active, reverting back to a more dynamic system after several hundred years of active management by humans (e.g., creating flood embankments, installing bank protection and dredging). These changes were kick-started by large flood events in 2008, 2009 and 2015 that caused the river to avulse at two locations, before being trained back into its current, single-threaded channel.
During 2021 and 2022, with funding from the Water Environment Grant (via the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), we undertook capital works to help ease this transition from an unsustainable managed system to a more natural one through:
- embankment removal and set-back, to reduce the risk of sudden avulsion and allow flood water to dissipate over a wider area
- ditch infilling, to stabilise the floodplain by reducing erosion risk at key hot spots
- culvert removal and track lowering on the Yeavering Burn (tributary of the River Glen), to remove an erosion hot-spot and open up a bottle-neck to flood water
- footbridge installation to retain pedestrian access over the Yeavering Burn
These restoration and flood risk management measures were the result of a collaboration between Tweed Forum, land owners, land managers, local residents, the Environment Agency, Natural England, Northern Powergrid, and designers AquaUoS.
Further details are available from the River Glen Restoration Project Supporting Planning Document.
Linhope Estate Floodplain Restoration
In 2023 we worked with Linhope Estate to re-wet 4 ha of previously drained floodplain by blocking ditches, digging ponds and reconnecting a tributary of the River Breamish with the floodplain. This will benefit the floodplain of the River Till SSSI and SAC by improving habitat diversity and slowing the flow of flood water.
Breamish Riverbank Protection
Traditional bank protection measures such as boulder rip-rap inhibit the natural erosion and deposition of watercourses. It is also prone to failure, often driven by increased erosion of the riverbed forming a deeper channel and eventually undermining the rip-rap. Alternative methods to traditional hard-engineered boulder rip-rap were completed on the River Breamish to protect the nearby highway from erosion in autumn 2019 in a location where rip-rap had previously washed out. This is relatively common to see in this high-energy, dynamic gravel river.
Two priority sites where the road was at greatest risk were selected by consultants Cbec Eco-engineering, totalling a length of over 180 m. Two ‘green-engineering’ designs that have been successful elsewhere were chosen to provide short- to medium-term protection, with the hope that vegetation will provide longer term protection.
At Site 1, a ‘root-wad’ design uses tree roots with the stem intact to protect the riverbank and create roughness. The roots face into the channel and the stem is secured into the riverbank laterally to stabilise the structure (see above).
At Site 2, a ‘log-matrix’ design (see opposite) uses larch posts piled into the ground to construct a matrix that mimics natural riverbank protection offered by roots and fallen trees. The matrix is filled with gravel, willow spiling and coir matting to create stability and future habitat.
It is hoped these ‘green-engineered’ designs will protect the road effectively, while providing additional habitat both in the channel and on the riverbanks where local native trees and shrubs are planted. The effectiveness of the measures will be monitored with fixed point photography to contribute to the much needed evidence base.
Further technical details are available in the River Breamish Riverbank Stabilisation Design Document.
Erosion management on the lower Wooler Water
We currently have two sites on the lower Wooler Water where green engineering solutions have been used to combat infrastructure-threatening erosion. In 2016, ‘engineered log jam’ bank protection and associated channel diversion at Wooler was completed. The inset floodplain created at the site has since regenerated with trees and shrubs and now provides fantastic habitat for birds as well as flood resilience. In the image below, the blue dotted line shows the former channel of the river before it was encouraged into a secondary channel. The inset floodplain which was created as part of the works has benefited from stock exclusion fencing (red dotted line) to further promote native species regeneration.
Following on from this, in 2024 green-engineered bank protection was deployed again at another site on the lower Wooler Water resulting in 185 metres of riverbank restoration. 100-plus timber root wads (sourced locally from windblow trees following Storm Arwen in 2021) were installed, as well as 80 metres of bio-geotextile protection in the form of rock rolls. The restoration work will not only provide vital ongoing protection for critical infrastructure serving the local community of Wooler in a way that is more sensitive to the designated characteristics of the River Till SSSI/SAC, it will also provide valuable habitat for invertebrates and the juvenile fish that rely on them for food.
