Thames21 staff and volunteers, including lads from the local area out of school took part in a Wild Trout Trust practical visit at the end of last week.
Ashe Hurst (Thames21 river keeper) has been the key person that I've liased with as part of the Trout in the Town project. Between us, we aim to bring wild trout back to this part of the capital. Natural recolonisation by wandering sea-trout won't be possible in the near future - due to the massive vertical sluice at the lower tidal limit of the river. However, if we can get the habitat spot on, we are hoping to arrange introduction of wild parr (to avoid depletion of the donor stream that would occur by taking brood fish and to avoid problems of domestication/artificial selection produced by stripping wild brood fish to populate egg-boxes). The parr would be taken from a river in which juvenile densities would be expected to undergo "density dependant" mortality - i.e. where they are present in excess numbers.
One of the cool things for me is the engagement of both the regular conservation volunteers and the guys who are not getting on very well in mainstream education. Both sets of people teamed up and the results of the habitat improvements are detailed in the Conservation forum thread here:
River Cray Trout in the Town with Thames21
Do also check out the very short video clips that show the action of the flow deflectors on the stream bed on my blog post here (I have to get the use out of my waterproof digital camera now don't I!):
Trout in the Town: Going all the way on the Cray
Flow deflector being securely installed by WTT conservation officer Andy Thomas to promote bed scour for holding adult fish and produce sorted spawning gravels as well as encouraging a meandering flow
Greater London Chalkstream helped by local youngsters excluded from school
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