 Photo - Visiting the Irfon with the Freshwater Habitats Trust
Meeting Local Organisations and Projects
The team have been visiting other organisations working in the project area to see some examples of the positive work that is being carried out.
The Freshwater Habitats Trust are working with farmers on the river Irfon. At their demonstration farm, we saw examples of buffer zones created by tree planting and flood-proof river corridor fencing, as well as the results of no-fence grazing management of upland moorland habitats.
Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s (RWT) Wye Adapt to Climate Change project has many synergies with our own project, and so it was great to do a joint visit with them and discuss how we can complement each other’s work.
We’ve also been meeting with other organisations working in the catchment, such as the Wye and Usk Foundation and the Floodplain Meadows Partnership, to ensure we enhance and add value to the work that they are already undertaking.
Reaching out to farmers and landowners on the Rivers Ithon, Irfon and Marteg
Our initial farm visits are focussed on the Rivers Ithon, Irfon and Marteg, tributaries of the Wye. We have started to make contact with landowners and farmers who are located on these rivers, to explain more about our project and explore opportunities to work together to improve the health of the rivers.
If you are located on these tributaries and want to be involved, please contact us via the email address at the end of the newsletter.
 Photo - One of the survey team on the Wye
Specialist surveys
Over the winter and spring, our team of river geomorphology experts at NRW have been carrying out surveys to record the physical condition of the watercourses in areas where we will first focus our work. These surveys form an important part of our baseline monitoring and will help to direct our work to parts of the catchment most in need of restoration.
The team have walked many miles of the rivers Wye, Ithon and Marteg and other smaller tributaries, collecting information. This will be used to help us make decisions about where to carry out actions to improve the condition of these rivers.
Surveying for Shad
Shad are migratory fish that spend most of their adult lives in coastal waters. They travel up rivers to spawn in late spring.
The Wye is one of just a few rivers that supports shad in the UK, and shad is listed as a feature of the Wye Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Until recently, very little was known about their behaviour and migratory patterns. Innovative projects using radio tags and receivers have provided fascinating insights.
We have installed a receiver at the upper limit of where shad are thought to migrate on the Wye, near its confluence with the river Ithon. This is part of a wider project run by Swansea University and NRW to study this species.
The receivers pick up acoustic signals from chips which have been put into the fish - if a tagged fish swims past the receiver it sends a ‘ping’ which will be recorded. The receiver will be collected in the summer after the shad spawning season, and the data downloaded to see whether any tagged fish have travelled up into the Ithon.
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