DCRT: Salmon Revival - River Don weir fish pass inspections

We will be helping Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT) throughout the spring/summer to help monitor and maintain fish passes in the river to ensure they are kept open and in good condition for our fishy friends!

Sheffield's industrial past saw the implementation of weirs on the River Don to power the factories. These flow control devices inhibit natural migratory paths for fish. To combat this, fish passes have been installed at the weirs throughout Sheffield. These are important for the movement of fish (particularly salmon) between habitats and breeding grounds. DCRT have been working on the River Don to bring back the salmon population to the area and now efforts are needed to maintain this. GoodGymers will be part of long-term surveying and monitoring of the fish passes to ensure they have not been blocked and remain fully functional.

Dates:

April 22nd May 27th June 24th July 15th Aug 26th
Sept 23rd Oct 21st

Monitoring the fish passes are an essential part of the Salmon Revival project. Building the fish passes was a big step in reconnecting the sections of the river but it is imperative these maintain operable.

We'll be carrying out visual inspections of the eight weirs along the River Don.

A template sheet will be provided in order to record any blockages/debris/vegetation buildup on either the upstream or downstream end of the fish passes.

Photographs should be taken of each inspection sheet and of every weir to document any concerns and general status of the pass at time of inspection. Examples of blocakages can be seen on the photos. Please put photos on the gg whatsapp group for the Run Leader/Task Force/Report writer to add to the run report which will be seen by DCRT.

GoodGymers MUST NOT go into the river at any point.

This task will include running alongside the River Don, making use of footpaths (predominantly the Five Weirs Walk) were available but there will also be some roadside running too.

The total length between Steelbank and Hadfield's weirs is approximately 8.8 km. We don't need to do all of this distance and it may be that some runners go to the further afield weirs (minimum pairs) and get some more KM's in.

Certain weirs such as Steelbank would benefit from being inspected using binoculars, so if you have some, please bring them along.

I have plotted the route here: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2477765?units=km

Here is the what3words for Steelbank Weir:

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Questions on the project should go to:

Charlotte Landry-Jennings Volunteering Officer 07561588275 charlotte.landry-jennings@dcrt.org.uk