Old Mill Ramsbury Habitat Restoration
In November 2020 ARK started work to improve the habitat on the reach between Ramsbury Triangle and Old Mill Ramsbury. The project had been several years in the planning and is one of a series of projects to improve fish passage and river habitat in the middle Kennet.

The work aimed to undo some of the historic dredging, which has created a straight u-shaped channel profile with a ridge that separated the river from its flood plain.

The project used gravel won from the banks and water meadow to create a more natural sinuous channel. Contractors Five Rivers worked with ARK and the riparian owners to make the changes. An addional benefit is the creation of a new area of wetland, which will provide habitat for birds, amphibians and a different variety of plants.

Good use of 'large woody debris' in the form of locally felled trees has created some great new meanders and an exciting addtion was the inclusion of two kingfisher nest boxes, that have been buried beneath a fallen tree trunk at the rivers edge.