Last Thursday, FoTV had the great pleasure of being involved in Groundworks’ Love My Rivers project volunteer day down at Tawd Valley Park.
The morning started with a site visit and inspection of Cobb’s Clough Weir. Here the group witnessed and confirmed reports of fish waiting down-stream of the weir, unable to pass on up through the river Tawd.
There are multiple issues weirs such as this one can cause. The two major and high priority ones being the obstruction of fish movement and the impact to river and wildlife habit. Find out more here: Weirs, barriers and hydropower | Wild Trout Trust
During the walk to and from the weir, the group spotted not one, but two kingfishers. A real treat, as the “kingy” is such a rare sight along the river Tawd. Fantastic to see a varied number of dragonfly species while traversing the Summer Street Wildflower Meadow, too.
During the second half of the volunteer session the team got to work conducting a number of kick sample tests on three sites along the river. The results were noted by group leader Samuel Gibson, who will record and correlate the information found.
Take a look below of some of the beautiful freshwater invertebrates that were discovered on the day.
