November 2018- SCRT started delivery work on a de-culverting project at Crosthwaite, Cumbria that had been worked up for several months. Funding for the project came from rod licence revenue as well as from crowdfunding, as part of the Dutch WWF dam removal campaign. South Cumbria Rivers Trust are the first to get crowdfunding for a barrier removal.

The project was in two stages, working with two separate landowners to remove a significant proportion of the once current culvert. The works started in November, aiming to remove approx 140 metres of buried watercourse. Improvements to in-channel and physical habitats as well as restoration of natural processes, which will in time benefit plants, invertebrates and other aquatic organisms are just some of the benefits of the project.

UPDATE

The project work has developed since November with the second section of the culvert being removed. This was also approx 140 metres, which means that overall 280 metres of culvert has been removed and the beck restored to it’s natural floodplain.

There has also been a boardwalk installed and a pathway on the land. The land is private but the school next door has an exclusive opportunity to use the site to educate the children about river processes and wildlife over the years to come.

Over 70 trees will soon be planted at the site to finalise this superior project.