WORK has just started on a £1m conservation project to restore a stretch of the River Wylye at Chilhampton.

Seven kilometres of the river is being restored as part of the four-year STREAM project which is being led by the Government's environmental body Natural England, and funded by the European Commission's LIFE nature.

The work will include changes to the slope, shape and width of the river's channel, replacing parts of the gravel bed, pinning tree limbs into the river to vary the flow and carrying out selective tree surgery.

There will be various planting of riverside shrubs and fencing off the banks. The work is part of a major initiative to bring back wildlife and enhance the river system which makes up the internationally-recognised River Avon Valley system, of which the Wylye is part.

The work will mean the felling of a small number of poplars and pruning of others to help prolong their life. As well as opening up views across the downs, the extra light will encourage other plants to grow including ancient willow and ash trees. The work will benefit the habitat for Atlantic salmon, the rare brook lamprey, bullhead and aquatic plants.

Project manager, Jenny Wheeldon, told Rural View: "The River Wylye has been heavily dredged in the past, damaging habitat for fish and other wildlife. This is an exciting chance to work with the Wilton Estate and the Wilton Fly Fishing Club to reverse that damage."

Work is due to finish in November so that, next spring, there should be an explosion of greenery as the new structures and river banks grow vegetation. Other work under the STREAM project includes new gravel spawning beds for salmon in the Avon at Woodgreen and restoration of two kilometres of the Avon and of the Nadder.