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For those of you who haven't seen it, I thought you may like to see this from Pete Reading's Dairy, on the Barbel Society website.

"Weedgrowth on the Avon has been exceptional this year, and linked with very high levels and flows, has resulted in huge problems for farmers and, we are told, the interests of breeding wading birds. The low lying fields have certainly been ankle deep in water a lot of the time. The Avon weedcutting has had to be more severe than normal, which is a cause for some concern, but it must be viewed in the light of a period of much less cutting, and having attended weedcutting meetings on behalf of the Society and local clubs, I must say that the EA have been very responsive to angling interests over recent years. Some years there is little or no weedcutting, and the amount of cutting is reducing all the time. It is now carried out in a minimal and much more controlled way, and I would not welcome the job of trying to satisfy the demands of farmers, conservation bodies and anglers, all with conflicting demands!

One stretch I know is not going to be cut at all from now on, as a direct result of consultation and reasonable negotiation between myself and the EA, and there have been changes in cutting practice which have achieved drops in levels that are slow and effective, thereby not stranding fry and inverts, again at the suggestion of anglers. This has involved a single, sinuous narrow cut, which lowers levels and retains the bulk of the weed growth. It works best in low flow conditions, however, and every year is different. In the future, the level of weedcutting will get less and less, I am sure, but in the meantime we can work with the authorities to minimise any potential damage to ecosystems."