Establish and support monthly invertebrate monitoring sites with schools. Fly life species and populations are an indication of water and habitat quality. Any crash in populations are notified to the Environment Agency for investigation as a potential pollution incident.
£250 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs for one regular school monitoring session. £125 will cover the cost of a set of riverfly monitoring equipment for issue to the school.
8 monthly donations of £250 would support 1 school for a full year. One-off donation of £125 would buy a set of equipment for 1 school.
Work with primary schools across the Wear catchment, particularly those from deprived areas, with little access to the countryside or to rivers, providing river trips to offer children first-hand experience of rivers, as well as classroom sessions and project work. Pupils learn about the value of rivers, the wildlife they support and about the role they can play in protecting them. The cost of transport is a significant barrier.
£1000 will cover transport costs, facilities hire and WRT staff costs to prepare for and deliver one school trip from an urban area to Weardale.
£1000 single donation or 4 monthly donations of £250 would allow a school trip to be scheduled.
Work with primary schools to deliver John Muir Awards (https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/john-muir-award) during which pupils spend a structured week exploring 4 key challenges around their local river:Discover, Explore, Conserve, Share. https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/john-muir-award/get-involved/four-challenges. The cost of transport is a significant barrier.
£2000 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs to lead activities for the week including transport to the river.
£2000 single donation or 8 monthly donations of £250 would allow a John Muir Award to be scheduled.
Community volunteers monitor invertebrate population levels to a more advanced level of detail than Riverfly in schools. Riverfly is the first line of defense in identifying pollution incidents for further investigation by the regulator.
£250 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs for one day to co- ordinate and communicate with community volunteers.
£125 will cover the cost of a set of riverfly monitoring equipment for issue to the school. £750 will cover the costs of running 1 Riverfly training day for volunteers.
£250 single donation or monthly contributions of 10*£50 would cover 2 community days. One-off donation of £125 would buy a set of equipment for 1 school. or 3 monthly donations of £250 would allow a
training session to be scheduled.
This programme maps and manages invasive species, particularly Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam across the Wear Catchment. These plants dominate riverbanks leaving them bare and unprotected when invasive plants die back in the winter, leading to erosion and bank collapse. Multiple treatments are required for up to 10 years to prevent regeneration. Giant Hogweed sap can cause severe injury and reduces the ability of people to safely gain access to the river.
£1000 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs to to co-ordinate and look after volunteers, provide PPE, application equipment and herbicide to treat 1 ha of land infested by Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam. Specific management areas can be sponsored.
£1000 single donation or monthly donations 10*£100 would allow for advance planning for the following summer treatment season
WRT is co-ordinating the invasives management across the Durham Peninsula World Heritage Site and and areas immediately upstream to improve habitats and public access. This is an opportunity to sponsor support improvements to the existing World Heritage Site and to support the proposed extension to the opposite bank.
£1000 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs to to co-ordinate and look after volunteers, provide PPE, application equipment and herbicide to treat 1 ha of land infested by Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed and Himilayan Balsam.
£1000 single donation or monthly donations 10*£100 would allow for advance planning for the following summer treatment season
Volunteers must be professional trained by accredited trainers in the regulated practical and safe use of pesticides close to water, for their own safety, that of the public and the environment. The outcome of the course is the PA1/PA6(W) qualification, which is trained and assessed over 2 full days.
£600 will cover the cost of training for 1 volunteer on a shared course. £3600 will cover the cost of training for full course of 6 people. £250 will cover the initial cost of a backpack sprayer and consumables such as PPE and herbicide for 1 volunteer.
£3600 single donation would cover a full training course. £600 would train 1 volunteer; monthly donations of 10*£60 would enable 1 training place to be reserved. A single donation of £250 or 5*£50 monthly donations would equip 1 volunteer.
Tree cover keeps rivers cool as the climate warms. If rivers become too warm fish populations can be severely affected. Riverside trees provide other benefits: habitat for birds and other wildlife, improved bank stability, interception of polluted surface/sub surface flows into the river, improving water quality, and reducing downstream flood risk. Aftercare maintenance funding is particularly difficult to fund.
£300 will cover the cost of 100 trees, biodegradable non plastic guards and stakes. A further £1000 will cover the costs of gaining permissions and working with volunteers to plant 1600 trees on 1 hectare of land. £250 will cover the annual
maintenance costs controlling weeds on 1 hectare of land.
Single donations at these values would secure these activities, as would monthly payments of £50, allowing planning to take place.
Lanchester to the Wear at outskirts of Durham City. Working with volunteers to improve the river channel structure and riverbed and remove plastics and other rubbish to benefit the whole food chain: flylife, fish, mammals and birds. Rivers are the source of 80%+ of plastics reaching the sea.
£600 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs, including materials to prepare for and deliver a volunteer habitat day.
A £600 donation or monthly donations of 10* £60 would enable 1 volunteer habitat day to be planned.
Cockfield to the Wear at Bishop Auckland. Working with volunteers to improve the river channel structure and riverbed and remove plastics and other rubbish to benefit the whole food chain: flylife, fish, mammals and birds. Rivers are the source of 80%+ of plastics reaching the sea.
£600 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs, including materials to prepare for and deliver a volunteer habitat day.
A £600 donation or monthly donations of 10*
£60 would enable 1 volunteer habitat day to be planned.
Peterlee Industrial Estate Shotton Colliery-Wheatley Hill. Working with volunteers, particularly businesses to improve water quality from site run-off, river channel structure and riverbed and remove wind blown plastics from industrial sites to benefit the whole food chain: fly life, fish, mammals, particularly water voles, and birds. Rivers are the source of 80%+ of plastics reaching the sea.
£600 will cover WRT staff and ancillary costs, including materials to prepare for and deliver a volunteer habitat day.
A £600 donation or monthly donations of 10* £60 would enable 1 volunteer habitat day to be planned.
Collecting data on soil health and productivity resulting from a range of land management practices from 3 participant demonstration farms. Organisation of on farm events to communicate results to the wider farming audience to influence the adoption of commercially and environmentally sustainable land management practices.
Soils Management is the single biggest factor influencing carbon capture and storage, natural flood management, drought resilience water quality and wider biodiversity. Healthy soils with good structure, absorb and hold carbon and water at different rates depending upon land use and support a wide range of biodiversity. Rainfall rapidly runs off poorly managed compacted soils, taking valuable nutrients from the land into rivers causing pollution and rapidly rising water levels and downstream flooding. Soil management decisions are complex and are becoming subject to ever more extreme seasonal factors, making it difficult to identify direct cause and effect on a year on year basis.
£5000 per year will cover the costs of collecting farm data, including soil analysis costs, collation of data and reporting of results from 1 demonstrator farm including 1 on farm open invitation event. Contributions of £1000 would make a proportionate contribution.
This is a high cost activity. Donations are invited in £1000 tranches.
Carbon Connects Sphagnum: Improvement to the supply of sphagnum moss. Currently very restricted in supply from specialist hi tech nurseries outside the region. A broader supply chain is required to support a greatly expanded restoration effort regionally and nationally.
Sphagnum moss is key to the re-establishment of healthy blanket bog, which holds more stored carbon than an equivalent area of tropical rainforest. Healthy peatlands also hold water, reducing downstream flood risk and through filtration improve water quality. All of which supports a greater range of biodiversity both on the blanket peat bogs themselves and further down the catchment. WRT is trialing methods of sphagnum moss production, which will be rolled out to local plant nurseries to generate a local supply, greatly reducing sphagnum-miles.
£250 will cover the cost for one month of managing the trial, collation and reporting of data and preparation of roll out of supported sphagnum production to regional nurseries.
A single donation of £250 would support the programme for 1 month. £3000 would support the programme for a full year.
WRT is working with a demonstrator farm to explore this business model with a view to rolling out insights to the wider farming audience and influencing practical management. Reduced livestock numbers will improve soil health by reducing compaction and allowing better vegetation cover, holding back water reducing flood risk, improving drought resilience and water quality. The direct marketing of environmentally beneficial high welfare, high quality meats directly to the public, rather than relying on commodity prices will support farm business incomes.
£5000 per year will cover the costs of collecting farm data, including soil analysis costs, collation of data and reporting of results from 1 demonstrator farm including 1 on farm open invitation event. Contributions of £1000 would make a proportionate contribution.
This is a high cost activity. Donations are invited in £1000 tranches.
Remove and re-engineer into a natural meandering channel, an open concrete culvert between the exit of the Chester le Street flood defense culvert to the A167 roadbridge through Chester Park. This will improve the ability of fish to gain access to the upper reaches of the burn and reduce local flood risk.
A full feasibility and design study has been completed, which has been flood-risk assessed by the Environment Agency in this high risk area, with permissions for the works granted in principle. Construction costs will be in the region of £300K. Multiple aligned funding applications will be required to raise this level of finance. At a 25% success rate 12 applications would be required to successfully achieve 3*£100K applications.
An average of £2,500 per application or £30,000 for 12 applications will cover the cost of applications, including the ability to recycle/reuse information between applications depending upon individual funder criteria.
Donations of multiples of £250 could be ringfenced for construction and used for match funding to strengthen funding applications.
A full feasibility and design study has been completed. Removal of the pipe bridge and replacement with an alternative crossing would remove a barrier to fish migration by reconnecting their in stream habitat. Barriers to fish movement in effect fragment the river habitat, impacts on fishes life cycles, ie access to food and suitable spawning sites, directly affecting their ability to survive and to reproduce. Removal of the weir and construction of a replacement foot crossing would cost in the region of £75K. At a 25% success rate 4 applications would be required to successfully achieve 1*75K application.
An average of £2,500 per application or £10,000 for 4 applications will cover the cost of applications, including the ability to recycle/reuse information between applications depending upon individual funder criteria. Donations of any size could be ringfenced for construction and used for match funding to strengthen funding applications.
Donations of multiples of £250 could be ringfenced for construction and used for match funding to strengthen funding applications.
A full feasibility and design study has been completed. The installation of 120 fiberglass baffles will vary the flow and mitigate a barrier to fish movement. Barriers to fish movement in effect fragment the river habitat, impacts on fishes life cycles, ie access to food and suitable spawning sites, directly affecting their ability to survive and to reproduce. Installation of the baffles will cost £ 100 each, costing in total £12K, but could be done incrementally at 5 baffles per day.
£500 will cover the cost of WRT staff working with volunteers for 1 day to fix 5 baffles, including the cost of the baffles themselves and fixings.
A single donation of £500 would support 1 day installation. Monthly donations of £250 could be aggregated to support multiple installation days.