This project will enhance the historic Amwell Magna fishery on the River Lea, one of the oldest fly-fishing syndicates int he Country. The site lies adjacent to Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust's SSSI at Amwell and is set within the internationally important Lee Valley Ramsar and SAC area. 

Brown trout and Grayling are endemic chalk stream fish, locally scarce and reduced from two thirds of their native UK range, owing to pressures such as loss of spawning habitat and barriers bisecting our rivers like weirs, fords and culverts. The Amwell Magna is one of the last remaining hotspots for wild Brown trout in Herts and features within the Local Nature Recovery Strategy with target actions linked to their recovery. This project will enhance and extend the breeding habitat needed for Brown trout and Grayling to thrive by re-introducing gravels lost through dredging, enhancing existing riffles with large wood for energised flows and creating predator cover, and exploring options to improve  connectivity along the 1km fishery addressing a series of weirs.

Located at the confluence of the River Lea and the River Ash, a rare chalk stream tributary, the site is well placed to build on recent restoration work. Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust restored 7km of the River Ash in 2024/25 and this project will extend those benefits by improving fish movement between these rivers and delivering Lawton's Principle of "bigger, better, more joined up" through restoration of the Lea. By reconnecting and restoring these chalk streams, the project will encourage healthier river ecosystems and enhance the long-term resilience of this important river corridor as it flows South into London.

Project benefits