In January 2000, CBE Ltd was contracted to design and build a vole-friendly, bank erosion protection scheme in mitigation for a 300m hard engineered canal boat mooring.

The first trial brushwood matress was installed to protect the towpath for a combination of boat wash and water vole burrowing, at the same time as enhancing local bio-diversity. Coppiced hazel bundles were used in its construction and top dressed with soil to provide a growing medium for marginal vegetation.

The installation was an innovative design and the first example of CBE's successful use of hazel brushwood as an erosion prevention technique in a wide variety of aquatic environments.
 

After the success of this project at Moulton Drive, over 10 Km's of successful bank protection have been installed for British Waterways.

In some situations where brushwood has proven unsustainable on its own, its benefits have been successfully retained by combining it with new composite techniques in a variety of high energy fluvial environments.