Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 3

CRANE CATCHMENT - 2015 IN REVIEW

It has been a very busy year for the Crane Valley Partnership (CVP), with many partners involved in a variety of projects and events across the catchment.

This issue will explore some of the achievements during 2015.

River Basin Management Plan Consultation

The consultation on the draft proposed update to River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) was open from October 2014 to April 2015.

A number of organisations and individuals with links to the CVP commented on the draft RBMP and a summary of the comments received and how they influenced the updated plans is available to read.

The proposed update to the RBMP documents have been submitted for ministerial consideration and approval. The approved updated plans are expected to be published in early 2016.

Workshops

Two very successful workshops were held related to the RBMPs. The first workshop, which took place on 10 February 2015, hosted by the Environment Agency at their offices in Hatfield, discussed the actions proposed for the Crane catchment in the proposed update to the RBMP. The second workshop was held on 9 November 2015, hosted by Thames Water at the Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. This workshop focused on examining strategic priorities and planning future projects within the Crane catchment.

Thames WaterPollution Fund

The support to projects from the Thames Water Pollution Fund has increased during 2015. These projects continue to support monitoring

Newsletter Winter 2015/161

and physical improvements within the catchment. There is approximately £135,000 left in the fund, which will continue to support further projects within the catchment. Below are summaries of some of the projects supported through the Fund.

Green Lane Flood Plain Enhancement Works (August 2015)

London Wildlife Trust (LWT) has worked with Hounslow Crane Community Project Volunteers and a chainsaw operative to clear an impenetrable wall of scrub separating the Green Lane Water Meadows from the River Crane. Green Lane provides an important aquatic refuge area for the lower catchment. Now the area of scrub has been removed, aquatic

Clearing of scrub on Green Lane flood plain

plants from the floodplain will encroach onto the river’s banks, leaving a seamless transition between river and floodplain.

Crane Channel Enhancement ProjectCrane Meadows

(September - October 2015)

LWT has cleared trees and scrub along 500m of river at Crane Meadows Nature

Photo Credit: Tom White

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 32

Reserve, Cranford. The wood obtained from clearing trees has been used to create five brash berms and two flow deflectors, concentrated on the reach of river joining the two meander reconnections undertaken by LWT the previous year. The work at Crane Meadows was delivered by volunteers from the Hounslow Crane Community Project, two Crane Valley interns recruited by LWT, students from LWT’s Wild Talent Programme, students from Capel Manor College and employees from British Airways and Mace.

Gutteridge Wood(November – December 2015)

LWT has cleared trees and scrub at selective locations along 400m of river at Gutteridge Wood. The wood obtained from clearing trees has been used to create four brash berms and twelve flow deflectors. The project focused on working with volunteers from the local area as well as further afield. Volunteer days were supported by the two Crane Valley interns and students from LWT’s wild talent programme.

Citizen CraneThe two water quality projects currently monitoring the biological and chemical quality of the Crane catchment rivers continued during the year. So far 20

months worth of samples have been collected across the catchment for 11 sites.

Data collected for the chemical water quality element of the project includes phosphorus (P) and ammonia (NH3), and this part of the project is managed through the Friends of the River Crane Environment (FORCE) and frog environmental.

The biological health of the river is monitored using the Riverfly Partnership methodology and managed through the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Funding was approved to undertake a feasibility study on outfall monitoring, which was undertaken during the summer of 2015. The results of this, as well as the first year progress report was presented at a very successful Citizen Crane Forum, held at ZSL on 14 October 2015. The presentations given at the meeting is available on the CVP website.

Lower Crane Wetland ProjectThe Mill Road and Willow Way improvement works commenced on the 1st July 2015 on the Mill Road Island and were carried out by Agricultural and Environmental Services (AES) and supervised by FORCE in partnership with the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames (LBRuT). Rough project areas had already been identified during pre-start communications to avoid the more significant trees. However these were constrained by the presence of large roots and daily site visits were required between AES and FORCE/LBRuT to work around these.

The tree works were carried out by the Councils’ tree contractor, Gristwood and Toms prior to the ground works commencing. Further tree works may be carried out later subject to any further proposed project work and available funds.

The Willow Way works followed afterwards and were less constrained due to an absence of significant tree roots. The whole project took approximately 3 weeks.

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS)baseline study

This project aimed to gain an understanding of Citizen Scientists at Crane Park

Photo Credit: Iain Cross

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 33

the distribution of non-native species within the catchment and its control/management, specifically in relation to four target species, i.e. Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica), Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), Giant Hogweed (Heracleum

Himalayan Balsam & Giant Hogweed alongRiver Crane

Photo Credit: Ilse Steyl

mantegazzianum), and Floating Pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides).

The London Invasive Species Initiative (LISI) conducted the baseline study. Utilising community groups and organisations, a data collection programme was developed that built on the existing data held by the partners of the CVP, collating all data within one database.

In addition, biosecurity was promoted throughout the catchment, and priority areas identified to best direct effort, including Check, Clean, Dry, Stop the Spread national campaigns as well as bespoke action for the catchment.

Lower Duke’s River ProjectThe project is one of seven projects across London that received funding from the Mayor’s Big Green Fund II in March 2015. The CVP was awarded £157,500, whilst match funding is provided through S106 money from the London Boroughs of Richmond-upon-Thames and Hounslow, Heritage Lottery Funding through Green Corridor and SITA Trust funding through the ZSL, bringing the total close to £420,000.

The lower reach of the Duke of

Northumberland’s River (DNR) runs for approximately four kilometres, from where it leaves the River Crane in Kneller Gardens, Twickenham, to its confluence with the River Thames in Old Isleworth. The river channel was constructed as a mill stream and water supply in the 1500s and remains an important – if somewhat neglected – feature of the Crane catchment.

The aim of the project is to re-invigorate the access and environmental value of this part of the DNR as a key link for wildlife and people between the River Crane and the River Thames, two of

the most important green corridors in West London. A series of co-ordinated projects, managed through the two London Boroughs through which the river flows, are in progress, designed to create a newly coherent access and wildlife corridor for west London, promote its use and provide opportunities for training, education and voluntary work.

More information can be found on the CVP website.

Tidal Crane Celebration Day, 18 July 2015

Thanks to 37 consecutive years of river clearing, organised by The Tidal Crane Association (TCA) and supported by the community, there wasn’t enough rubbish in the river to clear this year, so

Andy Flegg from The Conservation Volun-teers (TCV) next to tons of rubbish re-

moved from the lower DNR

Photo Credit: TCV

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 34

Yeading Brook Rehabilitation Project

Between November 2014 and February 2015, LWT has delivered a range of improvements to the river at Yeading Brook Meadows. The Yeading Brook project was designed by the Environment Agency and co-funded by The SITA Trust. LWT worked with local volunteers, students and industry practitioners to install 16 berms along a 1km stretch of the Yeading Brook.

TCA renamed their annual event ‘River Celebration Day’ and instead of hauling rubbish out of the river, they held a History Walk - in the river! The TCA, a Thames21 Badged Group was supported by Thames21, who provided insurance and all-important waders.

Over 30 residents came along and enjoyed a fun and informative walk as well as an opportunity to see this private stretch of river, which runs along the backs of gardens between North St Margarets and the Thames at Isleworth. The walk was led by TCA Secretary Martyn Day whose history

LWT also oversaw the creation of eight gravel riffles to improve morphological activity in the river, and the installation of numerous pre-planted coir mats to enhance riparian plant diversity. Volunteers and trainees were also responsible for clearing invasive species along 2,000m of river bank. This was achieved by a mixture of both manual removal and spraying.

Catchment Partnership Action Fund

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) made £4.775 million available to catchment partnerships in England and Wales, through the Environment Agency (EA), to support the delivery of projects during 2015/16.

The CVP secured funding for the Causeway Road Backwater Project, managed through LWT.

They conducted sediment analysis at the site and obtained flood defence consent from the EA.

Residents celebrating the Tidal Crane Photo Credit: Hilary Thomson

talk took in the early history of Skiffle music, market gardening, eel trapping and river swimming.

The day included River Dipping for children, a family tea, boat trips at high tide and a barbecue. River clearing is expected to resume in 2016. For more information, please contact Hilary Thomson (hilary.thomson@btinternet.com).

Volunteers installing brash berms along the Yeading Brook

Photo Credit: Tom White

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 35

Further site meetings were also held in order to obtain permission to work from National Grid and Transport for London (TfL). National Grid has given permission to work at the site, but TfL still require more information.

The contractors, Agri Estate Services, are refining their vehicle access management plan to meet TfL’s specifications. LWT has submitted further information about the project to TfL, including details of the project’s environmental objectives, funders and partners. A response is expected during January 2016.

Totally Thames Water BlitzWild Oxfordshire, in partnership with the River Thame Conservation Trust, Earthwatch, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), Thames Water and the Environment Agency, spear-headed a campaign to collect 1,000 water samples from the many hundreds of freshwater-bodies across the Thames River

Tim Stuckey from Thames Water taking sam-ples during the Totally Thames Blitz

Photo Credit: Rob Gray

streams, brooks, canals, ponds and lakes. EarthWatch volunteered to handle the data and map all results on their global water-hub with the resulting data available to everyone involved.

The CVP took part in this event, with a number of the citizen scientists involved in the Citizen Crane project, taking samples on that day, including volunteers from FORCE, LWT, Thames Water, Thames Anglers Society, LB Hounslow, LB Hillingdon, Friends of Yeading Brook and Harrow Conservation Forum. A total of 26 samples were taken across the Crane catchment on that day, with a total of 645 measurements taken across the Thames Basin.

Urban River SurveysGreen Corridor was successful in their application for a small grant from the Thames Water Charitable Fund to conduct urban river surveys (URS), assisting the Partnership in increasing knowledge of the flow characteristics and morphology along the water courses within the Crane catchment, so as to refine and enhance the river rehabilitation projects and green space enhancements within the catchment.

Ilse Steyl surveying the Yeading Brook at Gutteridge Wood

Basin in a single day: 14th September 2015.

The event was timed to coincide with the regular Thames sample run undertaken by the CEH as part of a long-term monitoring programme of the Thames and its tributaries. This provided an opportunity for volunteers to take comparable water samples from across a range of freshwater habitats in the river basin including headwater tributaries,

Photo Credit: Tom White

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 36

The URS surveyor records information on the physical structure of 300-500m stretches and their margins (with spot checks at 50m intervals within the designated stretch). Indices are then calculated to assess the relative physical quality of individual surveyed stretches.Surveys are undertaken between April and October and during 2015, 25 surveys were conducted. In total 35 locations have been identified to be surveyed. The remaining 10 locations will be surveyed during April/May 2016.

Once all surveys have been finalised, the results will be available on the CVP website.

Headstone ManorMuseum and Park

Headstone Manor Museum and Park are going through exciting times where the conservation of their natural and historical heritage are promising to deliver a number of regeneration projects which will include a sedimentation pond and reed bed system to manage silt deposits and cleanse the pollution from highway run-off entering the moat. Conservation management of the ancient woodland and de-culverting of the Yeading Brook near the museum to provide some flood storage and naturalisation, is also planned.

There are a growing number of collaborations between local interest groups resulting in more diverse activities on offer attracting locals and people from further afield i.e. Sundays concerts have been combined with native species planting; Halloween at the Manor has been coupled with a bat walk. In the new year, more is planned, building on these experiences and in collaboration with existing networks. In addition, a friends of Headstone Manor Park group is expected to be formed and a Heritage Lottery Fund, Parks for People, first round application is being

prepared for submission in February 2016.

If you are interested in getting involved, contact the Thames21 project officer Francesca Campagnoli (francesca.campagnoli@thames21.org.uk) and check the calendars of events.

Cranford ParkCranford Park has seen a great deal of activity this year, with the Cranford Park Friends (now in their third year) working closely with the London Borough of Hillingdon and other partners within the CVP in organising events, e.g. river clearance sessions with Thames21.

An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), to improve the park and historic buildings, is currently in preparation. As part of this process, river enhancement to the River Crane and Frog’s Ditch is also planned. A successful three week public consultation was held during April. The Feasibility Study (for submission to HLF as a bid pre-application) is quite complex and is still in preparation.

If you want more information on the Cranford Park Friends group, please contact Bob Barton (secretary@cranfordparkfriends.org).

Catchment Partnership Training Project: Project Delivery in Urban Areas

LWT was successful in securing funding from the Defra Catchment Partnership Fund to organise and deliver three free training events for practitioners working in Catchment Partnerships in urban areas across the UK. The events took place between February and April 2015.

The events consisted of the following three sessions: 1) A practical River Habitat Improvement Workshop; 2) Habitat Improvement Works on Urban Canals & Community Participation in Catchment Partnership Projects; 3) Major improvement works in Urban Areas - Project Planning and Delivery.

Attendees were also taken on site visits to best practice project examples on the River

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 3Crane at Yeading Brook Meadows and Crane Meadows and also on the Regents Canal at Camley Street Natural Park. As well as talks from LWT, there were also key guest speakers from the EA and ZSL.

The events were well attended with individuals coming to the Crane Catchment from as far away as Derbyshire and Manchester and from over 20 organisations.

The Hounslow Crane Community Project

(2015-16)The Hounslow Crane Community Project, led by LWT, has focussed on engaging volunteers in the London Borough of Hounslow. Volunteers have undertaken a range of activities including Himalayan Balsam removal, reed bed management, scrub clearance, flood plain enhancement and river channel enhancement works. We have worked at a range of sites throughout Hounslow including; Crane Park Island, Crane Park, Brazil Mill Wood, Green Lane, Crane Bank Meadows and Crane Meadows. The project has aided with maintaining the river to a high standard and has helped to generate a sense of community ownership and care in the London Borough of Hounslow. If you want to get involved with the project, please contact Tom White (twhite@wildlondon.org.uk).

Fish Stocking 2015The CVP Fisheries Group has approved a further three years of stocking from the Environment

Agency’s Calverton fish farm as per the Crane restocking schedule. Stocking of chub, dace, roach, barbel and bream took place 2015. The group decided not to stock other species at this time. The EA’s surveys indicate that there has been natural recovery of bullhead, stone loach, minnow, stickleback and gudgeon. Eels will recruit via the newly installed elver passes at Kidd’s Mill and Mogden, while anecdotal evidence suggests that bleak, pike and perch may be recovering naturally.

LWT applied for a site permit for the River Crane so that the fish stocking can take place. LWT is also conducting a series of site visits with the EA in order to assess suitable stocking locations on the Hounslow Crane.

The EA will continue to survey fish in the Crane at the usual sites on an annual basis, to allow the extent of recovery to be assessed by comparison with historic data. The Fisheries Group will review the survey data in late 2016 and consider the need to extend the stocking programme for future years or stock other species.

Mereway Hydrology StudyThe Environment Agency is completing

7

A barbel before transferring to the River Crane

Mereway weirits investigation into options to improve flow in the lower River Crane downstream of Mereway weir. During drier spells, flow downstream of Mereway becomes very low. However, if flows can be improved

Photo Credit: Environment Agency

Photo Credit: Environment Agency

Win

ter 2015/16Issu

e 3

by diverting more water from the Duke of Northumberland’s River, then full or partial restoration of the lower River Crane could become viable.

The report will review the hydrological data that is currently available and analyse the flow statistics. It will identify the extent to which the Mogden abstraction limits the diversion of flow to the Crane, provide and assess some sample flow scenarios, and identify considerations for future work to improve flow in the lower River Crane. The report will be accompanied by an interactive spreadsheet tool that will allow CVP members to test out different flow management scenarios. This will support the CVP in making management decisions about the future of both rivers. The report will be released early in 2016.

Heathrow Improvement Programme

Heathrow has continued there investigation on improving the quality of rainfall runoff from the airport that is discharged into the River Crane. Funding has been approved to deliver these improvements by the end of 2018.

The Eastern Balancing Reservoir is the focus of the current investigation. Survey work and supplier interviews have been on-going which will allow Heathrow to progress to the detailed design stage. A planning application will be submitted once detailed design is complete, altough the intention to submit has already been raised

For more information, please visit:www.cranevalley.org.uk

or contact

Dr Ilse SteylCVP Development Manager:cvp@greencorridor.org.uk

at routine meetings. There has also been work on-going airside on source controls and a couple of dedicated de-icing pads are under construction that will improve the airport’s ability to contain de-icer at source.

More information is available on the CVP website.

Saying good byeIt is with great sadness that the CVP said good bye to Jean Rolfe, CEO of Green Corridor and chair of the Crane Valley Partnership at the end of 2015. Thank you very much for your support during the last few years Jean. We wish you good luck with your new ventures and success for the future.

8

Jean in relaxed form at Green Corridor’s site on Stanwell More Road