Trout in the Town
Trout in the Town is the Wild Trout Trust's programme that helps urban communities engage with and care for their local trout streams. The project started in 2008, generously funded for the first two years by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and subsequently by the Environment Agency.
A growing number of groups in towns and cities have benefited from our detailed advice and support.
Click here for details about Trout in The Town projects or look on the map.
Many Trout in the Town projects are featured in an excellent book about fishing in urban rivers by Theo Pike, 'Trout in Dirty Places' . Theo is Chairman of the Wandle Trust and he and the Trust were the inspiration behind the Trout in the Town programme. Click here to buy a copy of the book . A donation from all sales goes to the WTT.
Whether you are an existing community group or angling club or whether you are interested in forming a group to look after your local urban river – we can help you.
Wandle Trust volunteers on a 'clean up'
As well as detailed technical advice on the potential for habitat restoration, we can put you in touch with other groups in the Trout in the Town network and also offer advice on structuring your group and finding funding.
Keep up to date with the ongoing developments via the Trout in the Town blog.
Also check out the wealth of advice in our Urban river restoration manual that we have produced based on our experiences with Trout in the Town group. You can buy a CD copy of the manual in our shop or down the PDF files from our library.
Do you have a project that fits in with the aims of Trout in the Town?
The document below sets out how the Wild Trout Trust will identify and prioritise potential urban schemes so we can make best use of our resources in supporting Trout in the Town projects. You can also use this as a guide on how to put together your own urban projects. Don't forget that even if your situation does not fit exactly into the Trout in the Town model, all the usual support mechanisms provided by us for advice and practical help are always available for urban as well as rural streams.
Click here to download 'Prioritising projects for Trout in the Town'.
How to plan and monitor your Trout in the Town restoration projects.
At the most basic level, monitoring tells you whether restoration works have had the desired effects. If there are no before and after project records or measurements there is no indication of whether all the hard work has been worthwhile. In all cases (and especially for volunteer work forces), great satisfaction can be gained from the certain knowledge that habitat works have had a positive effect.
Similarly, measuring project success demonstrates what has been achieved with monies donated by funding bodies - very important when seeking more funding. Clear demonstrations of what is likely to be achieved using benefactors’ money are crucial in securing financial support for conservation projects.
Perhaps most importantly of all, monitoring the effects of habitat improvements helps to build knowledge of “best practice” techniques – promoting the wider use of good practices, and curtailing the use of poor practice.
We have created some guidance to explain monitoring for Trout in the Town (TINTT) projects:
Clik here for the monitoring summary and here for more detailed guidance.
In August and September 2009 the Wild Trout Trust's Trout in the Town Project was featured on two of Martin James's BBC Radio Lancashire At the Water's Edge angling programmes.
In the first programme, Martin interviewed project manager Paul Gaskell. The next programme featured Andy Pritchard of Colne Water Angling Club in East Lancashire, one of the clubs taking part in Trout in the Town.
BBC Radio Lancashire have kindly given permission to reproduce the interviews on You Tube.
The following slide show by Paul Gaskell illustrates the reasons foir, methods and applications of citizen led monitoring projects in TinT projects. To navigate through the slide show, use the arrows at the bottom of the frame:
