The River Eden rises at the northern edge of North Yorkshire and flows north across east Cumbria to Carlisle and the Solway Firth. It is bordered by the Lake District fells to the west and the North Pennines to the east.
It is a large and diverse river system, defined by the changes in geology from limestone and gritstone to sandstone. The catchment is predominantly agricultural with upland sheep farming giving way to beef and dairy on the fertile lower Eden valley.
The Eden also supports a growing tourism industry, supported by visitors coming to enjoy the scenic countryside and the highly prized salmonid fishery.
The whole of the Eden, and most of its tributaries, have been proposed as a Special Area of Conservation for salmon, three species of lamprey, bullhead, crayfish, otter, water crowfoot communities and the riverside wet alder woodland. The river is highly valued by its local users, and is already the focus of a variety of conservation, fishery and tourism initiatives, which the SAC strategy needs to recognise and complement with its focus on the key European interest features.
Life in UK Rivers worked with river users, such as farmers, landowners, fisheries associations and conservation groups, to identify the issues that are impacting on these features, and try to find ways of addressing them. To this end, a partnership group meeting was held in September 2001, and topic-specific subgroups have been set up to start addressing some of the issues identified.
River Eden cSAC Conservation Strategy