Canal Ecology - home page

We have a combined experience of over 40 man-years of environmental issues on canals, having both worked for British Waterways (soon to be the Canal & River Trust and Scottish Canals) from the 1980s to the mid 2010s.

Much of this work was pioneering in nature, bringing an ecological input to the engineering and navigation-led world of Britain's historic inland navigations.

We worked at all levels of the organisation, combining advisory and practical work with preparation and publication of new policy, best practice, and innovative design solutions within engineering works.

We can provide advice and information on all aspects of nature conservation or other ecological issues on the canals of the UK. We can also provide advice on canal heritage issues.

We also have extensive experience in working and negotiating with outside agencies to ensure compliance with environmental legislation, particularly for protected sites and species. This has involved us in promotion of environmental best practice via innumerable exhibitions, roadshows, education campaigns and media promotions.

Particular ongoing interests in waterway restoration schemes and the ecological challenges they present - for both the aquatic and the adjoining terrestrial habitats. The interdependence of the built and natural heritage of the historic waterway network is also a particular interest.

It's all change in Britain's canal world at present. From summer 2012 the new Canal & River Trust will be taking over from British Waterways, bringing in a new era for inland waterways in England and Wales. In Scotland BW is devolving to become Scottish Canals.

But what does this mean for the canal environment and wildlife? A new review of canal wildlife issues, "Canals under new management - A review of wildlife value, issues and opprtunities", has recently been written by Jonathan Briggs, and was published in British Wildlife in June 2012.

Resources: We have had a number of enquiries recently asking about published resources on canal ecological issues, and highlighting the difficulty in obtaining useful information - either background or detailed data and reports. As a result of this, and with the new wider 'engagement' that may be possible with the new Canal & River Trust and Scottish Canals we have started (May 2012) a new Resources page, listing miscellaneous reports and papers that might be of interest. It's a bit of an experiment, and could become a never-ending task, but it seemed like a good idea at the time... Have a look at the initial compilation here.

We have been, singly or with others, responsible for numerous guidance, practice and policy documents for canal managers. Some of these are in the public domain, but many remain in-house with British Waterways.

 

These include the BW Environmental Code of Practice, Bank Protection Manual, Wildlife Sites Register and Biodiversity Strategy as well as numerous individual canal ecological assessments and strategies.

 

A few of the more easily accessible publications, including some for the environmental press, are listed below:

 

In preparation:

Wildlife of Britain's Canals and Waterways - a book originally to be published by (the now defunct) Tempus Publishing (click here for their over-optimistic listing on Amazon) will be reviewed and a new publisher sought

 

2012:
Briggs, Jonathan, Canals under new management - A review of wildlife value, issues and opprtunities, British Wildlife:, 23:314-323

2006:
Briggs, Jonathan, The Saga of the Montgomery Canal, British Wildlife:, 17:401-410

2005:
The Canals chapter in the Wetland Restoration Manual (Wildlife Trusts, 2nd Edition 2005).

1999:
Smith, Phillip & Briggs, Jonathan, Zander - the hidden invader, British Wildlife:, 11:2-8

Briggs, Jonathan (Ed) BW's Biodiversity Framework Document (including the 1999 summary document, available here (note this is a 29MB download!)

1998:
Ferguson, Cath, Briggs, Jonathan & Willby, Nigel, Floating Water Plantain in Britain - Under-recorded and Overlooked? British Wildlife:, 9:298-30

1996:
Briggs, Jonathan, Canals - Wildlife Value and Restoration Issues, British Wildlife:, 7:365-77