Nature of Britain

Sam Smith visited the River Camel in Cornwall to meet the volunteers giving it a new lease of life. Local people up and down the riverbank are helping to clean up the Camel and restore it to its former glory.  All sorts of projects are underway ranging from riverbank restoration to a salmon breeding programme. Sam Smith joined a group of students from the Westcountry Rivers Trust to see what lives in the River.

Rising on Bodmin Moor, and reaching the sea about 30 miles later at Padstow, the River Camel is one of Cornwall’s premier rivers. The whole river and many of its tributaries have been designated a special area of conservation for their internationally important populations of Atlantic salmon and otter. In recent years the river has been struggling. Part of the problem is that too much manure and silt is getting into the river, polluting the water and clogging important salmon spawning grounds. Salmon stocks have fallen and many other species, including the otter, have suffered.