Rivers in the Eden Valley contain numerous old weirs which were built for historic reasons, such as powering mills, raising river bed levels or redirecting water courses. Nowadays, many of these are redundant and can pose a maintenance and liability issue for their owners.
Removal and modification of weirs
At Eden Rivers Trust, we support the removal or modification of weirs to help return the river to a more natural state. This benefits both communities and the environment – more natural rivers have diverse habitats which support a range of insects, fish and other wildlife. They function in a more sustainable way and are more resilient to climate change. They can also enhance the landscape and enjoyment of the countryside.
Removing weirs allows the river to shift and store gravel more appropriately and creates the range of features such as gravel beds and bars, riffles and pools which river wildlife needs to survive. It also enables fish to move freely as water levels fall or rise.
Removing barriers such as weirs is just one of a wide range of techniques we use throughout the Eden catchment that restore natural processes to rivers or help existing natural processes work more efficiently. We look at the catchment as a whole, not just the immediate area, in order to research, design and implement appropriate techniques that address the local problem without adversely affecting the rest of the river course.