Page 44 - 4RA Regimental Journal 2019-2020

4th Regiment Royal Artillery
On 7 May 2020, due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, most of the Work- shop where at home on dispersed
readiness. The OC, Capt Bell, rang me and said the Regiment has been contacted by the local River Ure Salmon Trust ask- ing for help. One of their salmon channels that goes around the weir at Newby Hall was blocked by a big tree stump and the salmon could not complete their yearly migration. Both the National Trust and the Canal and River Trust had both tried to remove the tree and had failed. I was asked if I could meet with Dave, the rep- resentative from the Salmon Trust to see if there was anything that we could do to help. The next day, off I went to see what, if anything, could be done.
I arrived at the car park at the nearby canal lock and had a short walk down a foot path along the river. It was clear that there was no way of getting the SVR onto that side of the river. I was shown the problem, a large tree root ball blocking and getting pressed into the top of the salmon channel.
After a little paddle and a phone call from the Salmon Trust to Newby Hall, the owner
Cpl Dent
of the Estate turned up and granted us full access to the estate. This meant we could get to the opposite bank where an access/ service track went to their Archimedes water screw on the side of the weir.
After having a good look around that side of the river, it was decided that we could get the SVR in and have enough winch rope to reach over the river. A plan was made to return in 5 days when the salmon trust could round up more people and sup- ply a boat to help get the winch rope over the river.
On the 13 May 2020, myself and Cfn Fox deployed in the SVR to carry out the job. On arrival at the river we were informed that the man with the boat was unavailable due to COVID-19 and a health condition, so I had to come up with a new plan to get the main winch rope over the river. After a quick check of the water level, we decided that the best course of action would be to use the Aux winch to pull the main winch over the river. This meant that I would need to put in a of change of direction on each rope to bend the ropes around the wooden huts on the bank.
We carefully walked the Aux winch rope across the river, over the top of the weir which was only knee high, connected it to a pully at that side of the river and walked it back over the river and connected it to the main winch rope.
We winched the main rope over the river to the side of the blockage ensuring it didn’t get fouled up on anything under the water. Once across and connected to the tree stump the main winch soon made an easy job of pulling the stump clear of the chan- nel. Once the stump was across the river and at the side of the SVR a member of the Salmon trust in a pair of waders entered the deeper part of the river and discon- nected the main rope from the stump. Let- ting it rest in the deeper water ready to be washed away when the weather turns, and the water levels rise again. After a quick clean-up of the lose branches, the channel was clear and flowing free again.
Op SAVE THE SALMON
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