Restoration of Skjern River and its valley: Project description and general ecological changes in the project area

During the period 1999–2002, 19 km of the Skjern River and 22 km2 of the cultivated river valley were restored into a meandering river, wetlands, meadows and shallow lakes. The restoration followed a channelisation of the river and an artificial draining and reclamation of the river valley for agriculture in the 1960s. In 1987, the Danish Parliament decided to carry out the restoration to reduce the nutrient loading to the sea and enhance the re-creational value of the river valley. A comprehensive monitoring programme was initiated to follow the short-term ecological consequences of the restoration.The river valley changed from agricultural fields into meadows with a rapid succession in plant species. The retention of nutrients in the restored area follows the extent of flooding and amounted to less than 10% of the total riverine transport. The new river was rapidly colonised with plants and invertebrates from upstream reaches, and rare species in the project area generally seem to thrive under the new conditions. The new shallow lakes and the meadows caused a minor increase in the predation of salmon and trout smolts because of the increased populations of fish-eating birds.