Hereford Yazor Brooks Restoration Project update, winter 2022/23
A wide variety of practical restoration tasks have been undertaken by Project Officer Richard Fishbourne and his team of volunteers. Two funding bids took a lot of work, one for Stronger Towns money and the other to the Environment Agency; the work was rewarded with success in both cases. A detailed completion report was written for a previous successful bid to Hereford City Council for battery operated brush cutters and training.
Croys (see photos) have been constructed between dug out pools to create a more meandering “thalweg” (main flow path) and to facilitate fish rescues should they be necessary in future, when groundwater levels fall below the beds of the city brooks. The photographs were taken on the Eign Brook between the Texaco filling station and Rose Garden.
A section of the Widemarsh Brook, immediately below the “splitter weir” by the Redrow Homes housing development, was cleared to remove dense overhanging tree branches and brambles. The aim was to allow in more light to stimulate biodiversity in the aquatic food chain, with the additional benefits of removing accumulated detritus of human activity and making the course of the brook more obvious to pedestrians and cyclists. Two new volunteers – Eveline and Rick - joined the work parties during this clearance task. Workers were rewarded with some great wildlife sightings, including fox cubs playing and a sparrowhawk taking a bath in the brook.
Photo caption: Mo, Emil, Richard, Eveline, Jane, Heather and Nic (Anne behind camera).
One group of citizens were already equipped to avail themselves of the amenity of the Yazor Brook above the splitter weir.
Several pollution incidents were observed and reported this winter, including a leak from the right bank of the Eign Brook, adjacent to the Ledbury Road Texaco filling station, and sewage fungus at the footbridge immediately downstream of the Widemarsh Brook’s journey through the Heineken/Avara sites.
HYBRP partner Marc Hales and his Horizon Training students did a great job on the Eign Brook downstream of their centre on Foley Trading Estate, clearing up years of accumulated tree debris, some of it left in breach of the Environmental Protection Act.
Photo caption: Riverfly sampling stalwarts Anne and Nicky on Widemarsh Way, by Welsh Water’s Combined Sewage Overflow – one of a series of ongoing issues. This site was completely dried up for a long period in the summer of 2022.
Tree planting took place in early spring, 2023, beside the Eign Brook behind Meadowbank and on Moor Park; newly planted trees were protected within chestnut stake, rail and paling enclosures.
Photo caption: latest recruit, Rick, with fencing pliers and handiwork
HYBRP has open arms to new volunteers for practical conservation tasks and for administrative tasks such as bid writing, report writing or HWT City Branch committee work.
