Project update, June 2024:

With the help of volunteers, we created 34 brash berms in the brook, using over 1200 sweet chestnut posts and totalling an area of 1200m2 and a length of over 520m. We also installed 81 large logs within the channel, totalling a length of over 400m of Large Woody Debris. 80m of brushwood faggots were made and installed.
Over 200m of toe boarding and over 4 tonnes of rubbish was removed, and 6 tonnes of local gravel added to the watercourse.
Invasive tree species have been removed, and extensive daylighting carried out.
16 custom made bat boxes and 2 grey wagtail boxes were installed and over 30 cavities were carved directly into trees for bat habitat.
15 sallow planted & 3 alders planted, with further aquatic marginal plants to be added once berms have silted up.
Extensive pre and post surveying has been taking place: Audiomoths, Smart River surveys, electrofishing, emerging invertebrates surveys. Smart Rivers samples have been collected and are in the process of being analysed.
A total of 944 volunteer hours have been spent on the project.

Project description, April 2023:

The project area runs from where the Brook leaves Richmond Park and then goes under the Upper Richmond Road here. Working with landowners and all user groups, and led by Barnes Conservation (part of Barnes Common Limited), the project aims to create a diverse mix of flow types, depths, velocities, widths, and cover in this stretch of the brook. This will be achieved by:

• Redefining and creating a more natural meandering channel with brash berms. The densely packed brash slows the flow of water through the berm, causing any suspended sediment to be deposited within the berm, aiding in the scour of the riverbed, exposing previously covered gravels. With time, the berms will fill with silt and create a fantastic substrate for riparian plants to grow.
• Installing brushwood faggots at certain areas to reduce the level of bank erosion – many of these will be made from hazel coppiced on Barnes Common.
• Carrying out tree work along the length of the project area to improve light conditions to the banks. This will encourage the understory to develop a diverse range of native plant species and structural heterogeneity, supporting a wider array of wildlife. Invasive species will be removed along with numerous ‘garden escapes’ that are dominating certain areas.
• Installing Large Woody Debris (LWD) at relevant points to create varying flow speeds, scour and to expose areas of gravels currently covered by silt, which will provide important spawning areas and habitats for fish & invertebrates.
• Improve the habitat and food provision for bats that forage and roost along the Beverley Brook. Bat boxes will be installed under three concrete pedestrian bridges. Cavities and crevices will be carved directly into the trees with a chainsaw.
• Creation and enhancement of riffles, exposing underlying gravels and creating suitable spawning habitat for fish.
• Where light levels permit, establish Reed within berms placed around the outfalls to reduce the impact of effluent from outfalls.

This project is supported by the Mayor of London, in partnership with the London Wildlife Trust.