Fish ladder: Trout manages ascent
The German Water Framework Directive requires achievement of a “good status of water bodies” by the year 2015. To achieve this goal, the restitution of free passage for fish fauna in river basins is of particular significance.
In the village of Wolthausen, located 10 km northwesterly of Celle in the German state of Lower Saxony, the owner of a historic mill operates a hydro power plant. The plant consists of a turbine and the mill wheel that drives a generator. The millrace is fed by the “Narrow Örtze” river. For historical reasons, the millrace has no fish ladder so that the animals that live in the aquatic habitat cannot migrate the watercourse upstream. Lowering the millrace as an alternative to a fish ladder was out of the question as this, in addition to shutting down the hydro power plant, would also lead to a...
