Many of the rivers, streams and watercourses in the Evenlode catchment have been straightened, deepened and embanked by dredging. As part of the Landscape Recovery Project we are identifying the historic channels and features (so called palaeochannels) of many catchment watercourses to restore them to a more sinuous and natural course. The picture to the right above shows a ground-based LiDAR scan of the first palaeochannel we are looking to restore that has been isolated by the river by construction of a new straight channel that bypasses it. Restoring the natural function of this channel will have many benefits to biodiversity, nutrient and sediment cycling and flood water storage.