VOLUNTEERS are getting their hands dirty this week as part of a joint initiative to clean up one of the area’s best loved nature spots.

Teams led by the Environment Agency and Chiltern Chalk Stream experts are carrying out a variety of tasks in and around the River Wye, which runs through High Wycombe.

Volunteers throughout ‘River Wye Week’ are creating and maintaining fish spawning grounds, installing woody debris and removing the overhead tree canopy to allow sunlight into the channel and encourage weed growth.

Organisers hope the project will revive the stretch of river, which is a rare habitat for conservation and an important migration route and wildlife corridor.

Allen Beechey, Chilterns Chalk Streams project officer, said: “It’s really exciting that people in the Wye Catchment are pulling together to improve their river.

“We hope the week will inspire more people from the local community to care for their environment, while at the same time accelerating habitat improvements by working with natural processes to improve the river’s ecological status.”

The River Wye is a chalk stream, a globally rare habitat for conservation and an important migration route and wildlife corridor.

The chalk stream is also a breeding ground for nationally and internationally important and threatened species, including wild brown trout, otters and water crowfoot.

Jenni Balmer, Fisheries and Biodiversity team leader for the Environment Agency, said: “The River Wye is an extremely important chalk stream and we are very pleased to be carrying out work with volunteers.

“The main aim of this work is not to get as much work done as possible, but to inspire people. We aim to explain to people why we do this work, how we do it and how it improves the rivers.

“It’s also about showing how a lot can be achieved for a very small financial output.”

Volunteers will be taking part from Today until Friday, and will be given practical training in low cost techniques to improve river habitat for fish and other wildlife.