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Ruthin: 1km fence helps boost fish numbers in Dwr Ial

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Completed fencing work and drinking pointImage source, Natural Resources Wales
Image caption,

More than 1km of fencing and a new drinking point have been installed at Dwr Ial

Work to improve water quality and help increase fish numbers has been completed at a watercourse in Denbighshire.

It aims to restrict livestock access to Dwr Ial, a tributary of the River Clwyd near Ruthin.

Open access is a risk to fish eggs, so more than 1km (0.6 miles) of new fencing has been installed.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has also created a new drinking point by accessing an underground spring.

Richard Pierce, NRW senior fisheries officer, said: "The important work undertaken by NRW officers, in partnership with the local landowners, will help to reduce the amount of unnatural sediment that is released into our waterways and improve fish populations in the future.

"Dwr Ial was known to have fairly silty water over the years, therefore we hope the recently completed work will help boost salmon, sea trout and brown trout numbers.

"We will continue to monitor the work's effect on fish populations over the coming years through electrofishing surveys and share our results as with local communities as we get them."

Allowing livestock open access to the tributary risks over siltation of the watercourse that can have a negative effect on fish egg survival.

The fencing has been installed to restrict the livestock, and a new drinking point has also been created by accessing an underground spring through a solar pump solution.

It comes after new management plans were published by NWR earlier this year for Western Wales and the Dee.

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