Our staff took part last month in Water Safety Training delivered by the River Mountain Experience at Harehope Quarry. We are all now competent in ‘safe working in/near water awareness’
We all became very competitive when practicing line throwing! It was a very interesting training session and we are all now trained to act in an emergency should the need arise.
10th March 2023 10am to 3pm
Interested in river habitat, why not come along to a two site habitat workshop? This event is open to all, but primarily aimed at participants from the Tyne and Wear catchments. The day will be hosted by the Wild Trout Trust and local Environment Agency fisheries team, funded through their Fisheries Improvement Programme.
Beginning on the lower River Derwent, near Derwenthaugh, we’ll look at how woody material can facilitate natural river habitat improvement and channel recovery. The second part will involve a demonstration of simple habitat enhancement techniques at a site on Houghwell Burn. Use of the sites is courtesy of Gateshead Council and Durham County Council.
If you would like to attend, please book a place via email gpedley@wildtrout.org. Bookings will be on a first come first served basis.
Wear Rivers Trust are proud to be part of Northeastshare where we can network with other businesses in our County, where we can work together, save time and money, help each other, help the counties economy and reduce our carbon footprint which is important to us being an environmental charity.
For more information visit the Northeastshare website at https://northeastshare.co.uk/
The SuDS+ project is still looking for residents views in their prioritisation survey. Visit one of our five venues before the weekend to vote using stickers or use our online survey. Voting closes on March 5th. The locations are:
Craghead Village Hall
Quaking Houses Village Hall
The Venue
South Moor Library
St Stephen’s Community Centre
SuDS+ aims to re-write the way flooding is dealt with in the UK by involving residents in co-creating solutions for their community. This project is targeted at the southern half of Stanley in County Durham and lasts until 2027.
The online survey takes around 7 minutes to complete SuDS+ Vision of Stanley South (typeform.com)
Find out more about our project by visiting the website SuDS (stanleysuds.co.uk)
We have a number of days activity starting this week planting trees at two sites in the Wear Catchment.
The first planting days are at Burnhopeside Hall on February 23rd and 28th, then March 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Our second round of tree planting follows on at Lumley Grange Farm and will take place on March 7th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 31st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th.
The planting will be from around 9am in the morning until 4pm in the afternoon.
Head to our ‘Get Involved’ page to book
After dispiriting news on the state of UK’s rivers last week, the Rivers Trust CEO Mark Lloyd looks to lift our spirits for World Rivers Day by highlighting some of the wonders that can still be found in our waterways. But, he warns that we need much more ambition if we’re going to spearhead the green recovery and rebuilding after COVID-19 that is urgently needed.
In recent weeks, we have seen several newspieces which make uneasy ready for nature lovers, especially for those passionate about protecting freshwater habitats. The WWF’s Living Planet Report showed the continuing decline of wildlife globally, with the biggest losses to freshwater ecosystems; the Environment Agency released new water quality data showing us that 0% of English rivers are in good overall health; and Sir David Attenborough’s latest documentary “Extinction: The Facts” gave a stark warning that extreme biodiversity loss places us at risk of further deadly global pandemics.
The good news is that we know what to do and we even know how to do it. In the past year, the Rivers Trust movement has led the way in delivering effective nature-based solutions, from new fish passages in the Severn and Don catchments unlocking our waterways for migratory salmon, to constructing wetlands to improve water management in urban areas. Our map of sewage overflow discharges throughout England has brought together data from numerous sources to make them available, free of charge, to everyone. This is linked to a significant surge in interest in introducing designated bathing water standards in UK rivers following the launch of our Together for Rivers campaign, with the River Wharfe in Ilkley vying to be the first site to achieve this.
Despite all this great work at a local and catchment scale, our rivers are as unhealthy as they were 3 years ago. If we are to turn things around, it is imperative to keep collecting good, clear data on the health of our rivers. We also need an honest conversation at a national scale about the really big decisions that need to be taken, such as whether we are prepared to invest HS2-equivalent sums to modernise our drainage and sewerage system; what public goods we should expect in return for farm subsidies; and how polluters are going to be properly regulated so that their actions don’t heap costs onto the rest of society.
Finally, we need to dramatically improve public understanding of the water system so that we massively reduce the impact of chemicals washed down drains, the profligate waste of high quality drinking water, the sanitary products flushed down toilets, the misconnections of washing machines and dishwashers, and the poorly-performing septic tanks that collectively cause huge environmental damage.
As Sir David Attenborough said: “What happens next, is up to every one of us.”
