Dŵr Ial Water Quality and Habitat Improvement
Dŵr Ial Water Quality and Habitat Improvement
This report summarises the work carried out on the Dŵr Ial in the upper Clwyd catchment to improve water quality and habitat to help this waterbody to achieve ‘good’ status under the Water Framework Directive. This will be achieved through a combination of the creation of riparian buffer strips and cattle drinking bays to reduce silt, pesticide and nutrient inputs from surrounding land and working with farmers and landowners. The work will also lead to improved invertebrate scores, fish populations and biodiversity by improvements in water quality, management of in- channel woody debris and bankside vegetation.
This Project is jointly funded by Welsh Water, NRW and the Trust. The Project commenced in July 2018 and was completed in January 2020. The Dŵr Ial was an important spawning tributary on the Clwyd catchment which has been heavily impacted by intensive agriculture practices and the input of nutrients, notably phosphate, from both diffuse and point sources. Recently NRW surveys have shown that both salmon and trout juvenile densities have declined dramatically and in 2016 no salmon or trout fry were recorded in the Dŵr Ial. The Clwyd catchment was also subject to a number of major fish kill incidents from agriculture in 2017.
The work initially focussed on carrying out a walkover survey of the catchment and identifying the main landowners and farmers next to the river. Sites were identified for photographic and river flylife monitoring to help assess the benefits of the project.
River Flylife monitoring is being carried out by NRW. The habitat survey identified a large number of locations where access by livestock, principally cattle is having a significant impact on inputs of silt and nutrients to the river as well as physical damage and erosion to riparian vegetation and habitats.
Improvement Schemes
A Restoration Plan was produced which outlined details of five potential improvement projects identified from the walkover habitat and photographic survey of the catchment carried out in August and September 2018. The Plan identified 5 potential improvement schemes which are shown on the map below:
Detailed discussions were undertaken with landowners and contractors to decide which schemes to progress with the funds available.
The first scheme completed was at Wern Farm (site 4 above) and involved repairs, replacement and extension of an existing damaged fence amounting to 1.53km of double bank fencing together with the installation of a cattle watering trough fed by a solar pump.
The remaining funds were spent on a fencing scheme at Caerfameth Farm (Site 1 on map) and involved 450m of new fencing and repairs to a further 450m of fencing together with a new drinking bay.
The Trust also organised a volunteer work party with volunteers from Keep Wales Tidy and the Federation of Clwyd Angling clubs to help clear large accumulations of woody debris and siltation of gravels.
