The River Restoration Conference

Members of the FiveRivers team, Jacob Dew, Daniella Montali-Ashworth, Russell Spencer, Phoebe Weller and Sean McGrogan, recently attended the annual River Restoration Conference, in Harrogate. The conference is a networking and knowledge sharing opportunity for experts in the river restoration sector. We met up with old friends and made some great new connections.

It was widely agreed that one of the key challenges that we as a community of environmental restoration specialists face is working effectively with regulators to get projects moving. We offer the service of Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), with early contractor involvement, our team can make your construction project feel seamless. We’re able to work with you ahead of the project launch, offering expert advice on design processes, buildability, consenting and budget construction costs.

Our own Daniella Montali-Ashworth presented at the conference; she spoke about the work she has done to improve river connectivity. The work adapted a theoretical concept related to fluid dynamic interactions with aquatic plants and used this to create a fish pass. The fish pass designed has great potential to improve fish passage at human-made infrastructure, such as at weirs, that are known to block the migration of many endangered species.

We have further speaking opportunities at the 52^nd annual IFM conference, an event bringing together those passionate about sustainable fisheries. Daniella and fellow colleague, Helen Currie are presenting on recent PhD work in fish pass solutions, as well as Dave Bartlett and Tom Grayling speaking about a recent project and good practice in surveying and monitoring the European eel.

To find out more about the whole scope of services we offer within the monitoring sector, head over to our Environmental Monitoring page.