Despite the findings of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee first six year report in 2006 there is currently no catchment-wide restoration programme for Bullhead. However Westcountry Rivers Trust have been able to include the Camel in their wider Cornwall Rivers Project. This has enabled works to help limit some of the negative influences affecting the rive Camel. The main areas identified are poor land-use management, weirs, nutrient leaching, sedimentation and reduced water quality. The Trust has also begun a project on the River Camel to deal with invasive weeds which can have a significant effect on a rivers native plant-life. You can find out more by clicking the link to the right.
One of our angling clubs is very active in restoring the flows to the Stannon spawning stream and get a regular group of hardy individuals who have made a great impact on the water hemlock which chokes this stream if left unchecked.
Otters continue to do well based on studies which ended in 2009. The salmon population is artificially boosted by a stocking programme using indigenous stock. While this has provided a buffer population of fish, there are still unlimited catch netting licences issued on the Camel which have been held in abeyance by a payment scheme coordinated by the CFA, unfortunately funds are no longer available for this and the unlimited netting will return unless a sustainable quota is introduced this will undermine the hatchery work. Concerns also exist due to problems encountered with maintenance of bank-side vegetation in the middle and upper catchment, which has been shown to reduce levels of light penetration and a subsequent paucity of invertebrates which form the basis of the food chain for fish and otters in the river. This maintenance involves more background administration work than rivers without SSSI /SAC status, so is more difficult to initiate than on rivers not designated as such. The Environment Agency have offered to facilitate liaison with Natural England to speed up this process.
The River Camel is classed as a SSSI and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EC Habitats Directive.
The basisfor site monitoring is that populations of Bullhead (fish) and Otters for which the site was designated are assessed to determine whether they are in a satisfactory condition. The nature conservation component which is assessed is therefore not the river itself, but the species and habitat for which it was designated. Human activities and other factors which are likely to be affecting the site adversely, and the conservation measures taken to maintain or restore the site, are also recorded.
There are also the following habitats and species present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for selection of the river Camel as a SAC;
1106 Atlantic salmon Salmo salar
4030 European dry heaths
91A0 Old sessile oak woods with Ilex and Blechnum in the British Isles
91E0 Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae, Salicion albae)
The 2006 JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee) first six year report included a worrying reference to the River Camel. In preparing the report they found “Bullhead populations, like spined loach, appear to be under considerable threat. 13 populations are considered to be in unfavourable condition, and one (the River Camel) is partially destroyed. A wide range of adverse activities have been identified for this species, which reflects the number and distribution of these sites throughout England and Wales. Water management and water quality were mentioned as being a pressure in almost every site, although riparian management, agricultural operations and forestry are also important. Other adverse activities include the presence of unspecified invasive species, lack of remedial management, and recreational disturbance.”
Based on information from the JNCC - click on their link for full information
Nature Of Britain - BBC 2007
Sam Smith visited the River Camel in Cornwall to meet the volunteers giving it a new lease of life. Local people up and down the riverbank are helping to Sam Smith joined a group of students from the Westcountry Rivers Trust to see what lives in the River.
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