No worries. This is what the Environment agency drainage crew do every year for more or less the whole of Pevensey Levels SSSI. The first sign of rain in the autumn- sluices open fully. Water levels in many main dykes drop to fatal levels for many fish. Inverts are exposed to drying, frosts etc. This is possibly a significant factor in making this site astonishingly poor in terms of winter birdlife compared to other places considering its size.
Winter levels in the ditches tend to be very much lower than end of summer ones! A lot of ditches small and large are effectively drained to the bottom. All because it saves effort to do this. It is a scandal! On 9 October 2014 12:00, <adastra-requ...@lists.sxbrc.org.uk> wrote: > Send Adastra mailing list submissions to > adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/adastra_lists.sxbrc.org.uk > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > adastra-requ...@lists.sxbrc.org.uk > > You can reach the person managing the list at > adastra-ow...@lists.sxbrc.org.uk > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Adastra digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Major incident at Warnham Local Nature Reserve, Horsham on > Monday 6 October 2014 (Neil Henry) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 09:28:04 +0100 > From: Neil Henry <nhenr...@yahoo.co.uk> > To: "adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk" <adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk> > Subject: [Adastra] Major incident at Warnham Local Nature Reserve, > Horsham on Monday 6 October 2014 > Message-ID: > <1412843284.72445.yahoomail...@web172702.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi all Adastrans > > The ecological disaster at Warnham Millpond occurred when the millpond > sluice gate was opened (apparently prematurely), by Environment Agency > personnel, and could not be closed again. This resulted in the Millpond > being completely drained. Practically all the fish population and much of > the surface layer of silt was swept downstream towards the River Arun. > The ongoing works on the dam are being carried out by Bam Nuttall, as > contractors, to the order of the Environment Agency and Horsham District > Council. The contractor requested a 50cm drop in the water level to > facilitate their work. > > > Both EA and HDC have been conducting 'damage limitation' exercises, in the > media, stressing that there was no flooding danger to properties > downstream. After such a catastrophic fish kill event, the procedure is > apparently to count the corpses. In the first 200 yards from the > sluicegate, I have heard that over a thousand dead or dying fish, both > mature and fry, were counted. The casualties continued to be seen for the > next mile and a half to the confluence of Boldings Brook with the River > Arun and were 'too many to count'. A few fish were returned to the river, > but it is likely that they would be suffocated with silt and would not > survive. > > The impact on the Nature Reserve is enormous: The effect is not only on > the fish: the entire food chain has been disrupted from the invertebrates > and micro-organisms in the silt to those that feed on them. Even if the > fish can eventually be re-stocked, there will be nothing for them to feed > on. > > > We will try to keep the group updated on developments, but at the moment, > we are completely devastated. > > > Neil Henry (Friends of Warnham Local Nature Reserve) > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/pipermail/adastra_lists.sxbrc.org.uk/attachments/20141009/a29e4e97/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > Adastra mailing list > Adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk > http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/adastra > http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/adastra-archives > > ------------------------------ > > End of Adastra Digest, Vol 101, Issue 1 > *************************************** >
