Lowethorpe Beck

A 400m Section of chalk stream which has been heavily overshaded, eroded and silted up has been restored to an open chalk stream with improved gravels, in-stream habitat and variations in flow dynamics. The whole section was skylighted with the waste material being used in the beck to repair eroded banks, narrow the channel and create meanders.

Special Branch Tree Surgery used their machinery to place large woody debris into the stream. These trees had effectively been forming a series of dams along the water course.

We opened the tree canopy up and used the timber in the stream in such a way that we could achieve improved and varied flows, cleaning the gravels and restoring the habitat.

The conifer trunk placed into the stream (below right) now has a deep scour pool forming beneath it in a previously shallow, heavily silted area. This process is being mirrored along the stretch.