Image by Mersey Rivers Trust
Love Your River Tame
About the project
PROJECT TITLE: Love Your River Tame
LOCATION: 6km of the River Tame between Ashton-under-Lyne and Haughton Green
FUNDING: Awarded £99,150 from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund
PARTNERS: The Mersey Rivers Trust
The idea
The Mersey Rivers Trust have big plans for the River Tame. The Love Your River Tame project aims to restore over 6km of the river between Ashton-under-Lyne and Haughton Green. This will include Haughton Green, Hulmes/Hardy Wood and Lower Haughton Meadows Local Nature Reserve.
Work for the project will include improving riparian and in-channel habitat conditions by carrying out riverbank stabilisation, planting native water plants in the river channel and addressing over-shading through vegetation management. The project team will also remove invasive flora from the area and plant trees close to the river.
The River Tame is a valuable blue-green corridor within a densely populated area of East Manchester, providing health, wellbeing and recreational benefits for those close by. It is an important migratory corridor for a wide range of aquatic species, such as brown trout and coarse fish, as well as small mammals, bats and birds. The two Local Nature Reserves featured in the project are rich in natural and industrial heritage, and the sites have extensive access paths, linking to national and local trails.
In spite of this, the River Tame does not have good ecological water status; fish diversity and abundance are poor due to poor riverbank and in-river habitat quality plus insufficient diversity of invertebrates and native flora. The Love Your River Tame project aims to provide a positive resolution for the quality of the river and surrounding natural environment.
