Mileham restoration: Creating a varied channel
Mileham restoration: creating a varied channel
Working with the Coca-Cola and WWF Freshwater Partnership, Norfolk Rivers Trust have undertaken measures to improve the health of the chalk-fed River Nar.
The whole of the River Nar is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and in its healthiest stretches, the water is crystal clear and brimming with wildlife such as otters, water voles, trout and kingfishers.
Mileham
The first of the River Nar restoration work took place at Mileham and was completed in October 2012. A new sinuous channel was created, which passes through Mileham Common and a meadow within the neighbouring farm.
The land is quite undulating at this point, which provides the new floodplain with habitat niches and areas of differing levels of wetness, creating unique habitats for different species of flora and fauna to thrive.
Monitoring was conducted at the site to ascertain which species were present pre- and post-river restoration including water quality (dissolved oxygen, water flow, conductivity, turbidity, water temperature and pH), invertebrates, water voles, macrophytes, terrestrial vegetation and fish etc. The results of the monitoring documents are available under ‘downloads’.
