Tittesworth Woody Debris Project

In 2009, with funding from the Peak District National Park Authority (through the Sustainable Development Fund) and Severn Trent Water, a National Woody Debris demonstration site was established on the River Churnet at Tittesworth in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

For the first time in the UK, an Engineered Log Jam was used to help protect a road and footpaths at the site, and to provide a more sustainable option to the hard riverbank engineering techniques used in the past.

The project also included the creation of additional log jams at the site, the protection of naturally occuring accumulations of Large Woody Debris, baseline surveys (for fish, wetland insects, river structure and vegetation), the installation of a display board and the production of a new booklet which includes the scheme as a case study.

Climate change is now causing more flash flooding and this type of scheme can demonstrate the benefits for holding back flood waters.

For more information, please contact: Nick Mott