River Wharfe

ONLY 21% of England’s rivers, streams and lakes are in good condition, according to the EU, and yesterday the environment department Defra announced an extra £10 million grant for projects to make things better.

The money will be spent in ways to help fish, waterside plants, insects and birdlife flourish, said a Defra announcement.

Projects will include research into the causes of water pollution, removing obstacles like weirs that block the upstream migration of fish like salmon and sea trout, and removing some dangerous invasive species like the American signal crayfish and possibly feral mink, which have done enormous damage to native wildlife after escaping from fur farms.

The work will be carried out by the Environment Agency, which is already active in the Yorkshire Dales and has already recorded salmon and sea trout in the River Swale and in the lower reaches of the Wharfe and Aire - although there have been as yet no sightings of these fish in their upper reaches.

The importance of the arrivals of these fish cannot be overstated because it is setting back the clock almost 200 years. Such fish have entered the river system from the North Sea and such migrations stopped early in the 19th Century when effluent from the Industrial Revolution made the River Humber impassable.