A SCHEME to help fish navigate the River Ashburn has gone swimmingly well – and has been completed in time for the autumn migration season.

The new fish pass will help support the river’s eco system by assisting the migration of salmon, eels and other species through Ashburn Check Weirs within the Dartmoor National Park.

Westcountry Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency identified an issue whereby fish were unable to move upstream due to the four, historic stepped weirs close to the A38 eastbound entry slip road at Buckfastleigh.

National Highways ploughed £450,000 from its Environment and Wellbeing Fund into adapting the weirs to enable fish to navigate their way upstream to their traditional spawning grounds.

Olivia Cresswell, aquatic services manager at Westcountry Rivers Trust said: “We are excited these four fish and eel passes, located at the entrance to the River Ashburn, have been created.

“Fish survey records from the Environment Agency suggest that salmon have been restricted from most of this river since 1999, making this a much-needed construction to improve access to important salmon, trout and eel habitat.

“We were able to provide fisheries expertise and support during the work, and it really has been a great team effort.”

Work started in early June and the scheme, designed by Kier, was delivered by idverde UK, alongside the Westcountry Rivers Trust, Castleford Engineering and Fishtek Consulting.

The work involved cutting the teeth off three of the original four weirs, installing baffles to create the optimal slope gradient for fish passage, and cutting nothces into the top weir crests to maintain fish passage in low flows.

Because of the weirs environmentally significant location, extra care was taken during the construction work.