In Winter 2023 our volunteers set off to build a picture of how pollution entered the River Aire in Bradford and Craven. Their findings, available here, gave us cause for grave concern.
The next step would be to look at the state of the river and becks in the Upper Aire - essentially Skipton and upwards.
So, in Winter 2024 we launched a citizen science survey for volunteers to walk over the upper tributaries of the River Aire in and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Our volunteers looked for and photographed human adaptions to the river and key fish breeding habitat with their smart phones.
All with the aim of producing a map showing the key barriers and priority habitats linked to the return of Salmon and other long-range migratory fish to the Upper Aire.
Salmon have been absent from the upper River Aire for the last 300 years. The industrial and agricultural revolutions saw significant changes to our rivers that made them inaccessible and less suitable for fish reproduction.
The Industrial Revolution saw weirs and culverts block and hide our rivers. Industrial pollutants made the water toxic. Rivers have been straightened to help drain agricultural land and riverbanks were walled to prevent soil erosion. Fallen trees are removed from the river to reduce flood risk. All contributing to a river that is stripped of life-giving fine gravels that should form the breeding habitat for migratory fish and the insects their young feed on.
Watch this video produced by our friends at the Wild Trout Trust highlighting the problems faced by rivers in the upper Aire.
Volunteers from The Yorkshire Dales National Park and Aire Rivers Trust walked the publicly accessible sections of the Upper Aire across three main catchments:
With the aim of recording both the modifications humans have made to the river and where high-quality river habitat remains.
The survey helps show what obstacles remain as barriers to fish movement in the river and expands the record of known weirs found in the upper Aire, alongside mapping where humans have altered the course, width, depth or banks of the river. All of which helps interested parties formulate plans to help our rivers recover from the impact of human modification.
Across the survey area we recorded 73 barriers to fish passage that blocked access to high-quality habitat found across the upper reaches of the catchments surveyed.
To view our full results, click on this map to view our interactive project findings:
