The site has undergone a substantial amount of work to make it a viable fishery and to save the river bank from eroding away after decades of minimal maintenance, turning the venue into a special place for all wildlife.  

Tree works 

The willow trees along the river gipping had long been overdue some maintenance works, they had become very tall and weak, this is required to promote a diverse range of wildlife and vegetation as well as safety for those on the footpath and to prevent flood water being held back, we have a riparian landowner obligation to do this.

The willow trees along the river had taken over the banks, large fallen branches were restricting water flow causing the river to back up during high water levels, water flow was being diverted causing the riverbank to erode, during high winds we had had a few large branches fall onto the footpath.   

The works were completed outside of nesting season and ecological surveys were completed prior to works commencing, the works took place over several months throughout 2020.   The majority of the trees are on the industrial estate side, so we teamed up with them to get the works done.   In a few months time the riverbanks and trees will flourish again, no trees have been removed, only topped, they will now ‘bush out’ providing more habitat space compared to a tall willow tree.  This time of year, or early in the winter months is the correct time to do this. 

We have a program of planting new trees (not willows) along the banks in the spring, although the recent floods may well put this back a little as we have some repairs to undertake due to flood damage.   We have planted over 500 trees in two years at Barham Lakes. 

Footpath 

The footpath along the river is passable all year round now, the investment in bank repairs have substantially helped this.

This is an ongoing challenge as its apparent if nature was to have its way the bank between the lakes and the river would ‘give way’ completely in places due to continuous flood damage, potentially losing the footpath and causing the river to dry up in sections.   The footpath is level and at least 4m wide now, ideal in this current world.   
Both the river gipping and the Barham lakes are ‘man made’. 

Fencing

The fencing is in place to keep otters out! Otters are beautiful creatures but not compatible with a fishery, the angling trust have lobbied government for compensation for private fisheries after the wildlife trust began a program of releasing otters in 2005, without a thought for a sustainable food source for them.

They are big predators and require a substantial amount of food. This action has had a devastating impact on our country’s freshwater fish stocks and forced fishery owners to invest in predation defence such as otter fencing.  Fish are not the only species to suffer at the hands of this apex predator, aquatic bird life, especially king fishers have also seen a rapid decline since the otter’s reintroduction into our water ways. 

Since the fence has been erected at Barham Lakes, we have seen a huge increase in aquatic bird life, especially kingfishers which can be seen from the footpath.