Latest News

Wooler Water Reconnection Project Receives £500,000 from the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund

An innovative environmental project that will remove a major barrier to salmon migration on Northumberland’s Wooler Water and create a new heritage trail, improved habitat and education and recreational programmes that connect people with nature has received a £500,000 grant from the UK Government’s £40 million second round of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, a multi-million-pound boost for green jobs and nature recovery.

Freshwater fish are under threat, with as many as a third of global populations in danger of extinction, according to an assessment.

Populations of migratory freshwater fish have plummeted by 76% since 1970, and large fish – those weighing more than 30kg – have been all but wiped out in most rivers. The global population of megafish down by 94%, and 16 freshwater fish species were declared extinct last year.

For more than twenty years, a movement of NGOs, fishermen, scientists, local residents, activists, and politicians have been fighting to restore the migratory pathways of wild Atlantic salmon. They have finally achieved their victory with the announcement of the "New Poutès" dam on the Upper Allier. The old dam has been removed, and a new structure will be built. The once 4.5 kilometer impoundment will now be 350 meters long.