The Aire Rivers Trust presents the Chellow Dene Wetland Project! The Chellow Dene Wetland is a small green space in Chellow Dene, Bradford, tucked away behind several houses. Chellow Dene Beck runs through the site, and this wetland acts as its floodplain in high rainfall. The Aire Rivers Trust and partners have transformed the site by implementing changes to re-naturalise the beck.
The Changes
The old design for the Chellow Dene Wetlands included a few cells of reedbeds that would filter water from the beck and act as flood storage for high rainfall events. These reedbeds had since silted up, meaning they no longer held floodwater, so they would not have mitigated any damage in the event of a flood. There was also a small weir that was blocking fish passage up and down the stream. The Aire Rivers Trust implemented features such as a log mattress and leaky dams, which will help to re-naturalize the beck, connect the beck back to its floodplain, and slow the flow of water. A weir bypass was also built around the weir to allow fish to move freely along Chellow Dene Beck.
A Space for Wildlife and the Community
Chellow Dene Wetland is an excellent asset to Bradford, as it provides a diversity of habitats for wildlife, helps mitigate damage in local flooding events, and provides amenity space for the local community. The Aire Rivers Trust and the Friends of Bradford Beck have hosted volunteer events at the wetlands with groups like the Scouts to do conservation work, including tree planting, Himalayan balsam pulling, and litter-picking. Many people have since walked through the Chellow Dene Wetlands and commented that the work has greatly improved the site!
Find out more about the work the Aire Rivers Trust does at our website – Home – Aire Rivers Trust
On 18th September, a small but select group gathered for the Offical Opening of the new wetland area. Representatives from our funders were there, and the odd passer by was treated to an explanation of what we were doing and why we bothered.
Partners and Funders
The Chellow Dene Wetland Project is funded by the Environment Agency, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and Britvic. Britvic’s funding is part of a partnership with The Rivers Trust to care for water resources and nature in the areas they operate. This project is part of the Environment Agency’s Water Environment Improvement Fund. The changes made were designed by Wetland Engineering and implemented by Conservefor. The Friends of Bradford Becks have provided great support and expertise to the project.
Current projects
Practical Conservation update January 2024
Project Officer Gareth Muir gives us an update about what the volunteers have been up to last month.
Tool maintenance
After returning from the Christmas and New Year break, the practical volunteers got stuck into a spot of tool maintenance. Volunteers joined staff at our office in Greengates to sort, clean, sharpen and oil the tools used by the volunteers to carry out practical environmental conservation tasks. Without these tools, we could not carry out the work, so they must be in top condition! Staff and volunteers had the (un)enviable task of going through the Trust’s protective equipment (PPE), ensuring it was safe, working and effective. Thankfully, everything was ship shape and Bristol fashion!
Coppicing at Druid’s Altar, St Ives, Bingley
Volunteers undertook some coppicing at Druid’s Altar hazel coppice on St Ives Estate, Bingley. Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management with roots going back hundreds if not thousands of years. Using hand tools including; loppers, bowsaws and the iconic billhook, volunteers cut hazel ‘stools’ to harvest ‘rods’ of various diameters for a range of uses. The main use was to produce hazel hedging stakes. These stakes were later used on sites within the catchment to lay hedges. In the process of producing these stakes, volunteers realised the perfect length for a stake was an ‘Olivia’ (our River Conservation Assistant) of 1.5 metres! Over the course of three work days, volunteers coppiced 21 stools and produced 112 stakes, some may say the stakes were…’high’. Why not visit the National Coppicing association to find out more about this fascinating traditional craft?
The volunteers were busy trimming the holly hedgerow at Trench Meadow. A hedgerow, which in the past had been neglected was in need of some tender loving care. The volunteers provided this by cutting back the encroaching greenery onto the footpath, allowing footpath users to path through unmolested by errant pickily leaves! The volunteers also took the opportunity to remove encroaching bramble on the meadow, thus preventing it’s natural succession into woodland. Trench Meadow is a Site of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) containing a variety of flora, which the Trust aims to safeguard for the future. To find out about Trench Meadow, why not visit this interesting blog post by ‘The Nature Guy’ who contacted the Trust in summer 2023:
Hedge-laying continues to be a firm favourite with the Trust’s practical conservation volunteers. This month volunteers worked had to lay a predominantly hazel hedge at Ryeloaf Meadows, Bingley; a fantastically untouched site beneath the Bingley Relief Road. Accessed via Dowley Gap Waste centre, the site is managed by Bradford Council’s Countryside and Rights of Way team with the Aire Rivers Trust carrying out environmental conservation tasks onsite on their behalf. The traditional countryside management craft of hedge laying is enjoying some what of a resurgence of late and as an organisation the Trust is keen to keep these traditional skills alive and use them to improve habitat in the catchment and beyond. If you’d like to find out more about hedge laying, why not visit the National Hedge laying Society website:
Willow clearance on the riverside at Ryeloaf Meadows continues, with volunteers removing dense patches of willow near the water’s edge. Large stands of willow deflect the flow of the river away from the site, which acts as a flood water overflow. The cut willow is stacked into dense brash piles, which will in time become a new habitat for invertebrates and potentially laying up spots for male otters in the summertime. The composition of the woodland at Ryeloaf Meadow is ‘wet’ woodland (predominantly common alder and crack willow), which is an under represented habitat in the Bradford area. Woodland management often includes thinning tree numbers and producing deadwood, so that multiple layers of habitat are present with a ‘mosaic’ of canopy, understory, shrub and herb layer.
January was a busy month with a variety of tasks. The ‘nature’ (pardon the pun) of practical conservation dictates that the tasks performed by volunteers vary greatly. Moving ahead into the end of winter the volunteers will be continuing hedge laying, tree planting and gearing up to the river clean ups, once the flood waters have subsided.
The Aire Rivers Trust offers support to landowners as we know that what happens on the land affects the river. Flooding in recent years has caused misery to businesses and homeowners in the Aire valley. To help reduce this impact a range of measures are being implemented. In and around our cities’ engineered solutions are designed to protect properties. While in the rural areas existing land features can be used. This is known as Natural Flood Management and reduces the speed of rainwater entering the river without affecting productivity. Within the Aire valley is the most ambitious scheme so far in the country. The Aire Rivers Trust can help develop features on any suitable land.
The sort of features that we would want to implement are, intercepting runoff, rainwater storage areas, tree planting, buffer strips, leaky dams, and soil aeration. Any of these will cause rainwater to enter the river system slower than it does now.
Our DNAire project means that the River Aire is now open to fish passage and reverses 200 years where particularly Salmon were denied the ability to spawn in the upper catchment. Data shows that this change is just the beginning of what is needed to achieve a river that is a positive asset for the people and wildlife of the area. Our attention is to now work with the landowners who have land that drains into the river via the tributaries and water courses. Not only does this affect the river but has the potential to help alleviate flooding further downstream by slowing the flow. The land surrounding the River Aire is well used, there is good quality grazing; equine husbandry; recreational use such as sports, parks, and camping; private ownership; education; and our thriving urban centres. We can work with all types of land uses to promote the welfare of the river.
Leaky dams slow the flow of water high up in the catchment
Tree planting along Otterburn Beck
Our aim is to provide a good summary of the options that may be available so that you can make an informed decision about making changes to your land. After an initial visit and assessment, we want to be able to provide ongoing support and advice to achieve shared aims.
Working with landowners
Aire Rivers Trust has developed a regular programme of volunteer workdays. We deliver river clean-ups, invasive species removal, tree planting, footpath repairs and hedge laying. The volunteers help us carry out the practical improvements to the river and will be involved in the delivery of projects where possible.
Our volunteers hedge laying at Bingley North Bog
Currently we are seeking farmers and landowners who we could interest in planting Natural Flood Management features such as woodland, buffer strips and hedges within the Aire catchment. We will be able to offer advice and support in the development of projects and then link landowners to full funding for them under the Leeds FAS2 (Flood Alleviation Scheme) which is using organisations like us to engage with landowners to identify interested parties and draw up outline plans.
If you’re located in the Aire Valley and would like to find out more about how trees and other natural flood management measures could help your farmland to become more flood resilient and improve the river, please get in touch with Nick Milsom Aire Rivers Trust on 07378 878857 or email nick.milsom@aireriverstrust.org.uk
Working with landowners
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