New willow banks shore up the river and close the Thames21 year on the Cray
Our year of events has now effectively ended with: volunteers completing their River Enhancement Training Programme by repairing a 25m section of eroded and damaged river bank on the Cray at Foots Cray Meadows. Under the direction of Mark Gallant from the North West Kent Country Side Partnership, volunteers completed the willow spiling repairs to the river bank. Thames21 (Funded by Veolia Environmental Trust) NWKCP (funded by WWF) with the support of the London Borough of Bexley we have been working on this stretch of the river throughout the Summer and Autumn.
It has been a fun and challenging season on the Meadows working with Mark Gallant our Volunteer River Keepers have learnt new skills and been able to involve local schools, young people from the National Citizen Service and other volunteers in this work.
Then once again students from St Pauls Academy came out to the Thames Road Wetland on a damp and Dark December day to take on some wetland management setting. Under the direction of the Site manager Chris Rose set about pulling some of the reed mace to keep clear water channels on the site. As always well done to them their enthusiasm to take on this task a credit to their school.
Next Year
Look out for a new programme of events for 2015, we will continue with the River Bank restoration at Foots Cray Meadows as part of the Veolia Trust funded River Cray Chalk Stream Habitat enhancement programme.
There will be Community River Clean ups, Thursday January 29th with the Friends of the Shuttle we shall all be at Danson Park removing the rubbish from the lake.
Do get in touch with me to take part and if you have identified any parts of the Rivers which need our attention.
Michael Heath
Cray Project Officer
17 December 2014