Posted on September 06, 2017
WTT Conservation Officer Tim Jacklin is working on a project to ‘let the Dove flow’ by breaching some of the 100 weirs that were created in the early 20th Century.
See below for more details or the visit the National Trust website.
The River Dove in Derbyshire forms a key part of Dovedale’s beauty as it meanders through the valley below steep woods and wildflower-rich grassland.
Posted on September 01, 2017
Wild Trout Trust founder and former President, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, highlights the plight of chalk streams in the south east in a guest blog for the World Wildlife Fund.
Click here for more photos of sadly dry, or nearly dry, chalk streams.
Posted on August 30, 2017
If you had not noticed, our Research & Conservation Officer, Jonny Grey, has been coordinating an interesting set of guest blogs from young researchers who are currently chipping away at the coalface of academia. These guys are using state-of-the-art techniques to address important questions with regard to trout and other species, broader lake and river ecology, and aspects of management. So far we have had articles on issues ranging from abstraction to watercress, and a whole host in between. Have a quick search back through the blog, here. This is a great opportunity for those researchers to communicate their science to a wider, non-technical audience.
Today, we have a new contribution from Jess Fordyce, a PhD student from the University of Glasgow based at the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE). She has been fascinated by the natural environment since childhood, especially anything aquatic. Her summer holidays were usually spent rummaging around rock pools on the beach for any animal life. To push this passion toward a career, Jess studied at the University of Glasgow in Marine and Freshwater Biology, where she became particularly passionate about freshwater ecology. Although Jess had not studied genetics, she found using genetics techniques to answer important ecological questions an exciting prospect and hence began a PhD looking at genetic, morphological and life-history structuring in brown trout.
Read about some of her aims, here.
Posted on August 29, 2017
This workshop will take place in Birmingham on September 25 and 26 at Aston Business School. The workshop has been organised by the Dam Removal Partnership, Severn Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency.
Click here for the full details including booking.
The draft programme has contributors from across Europe and will be an important event to learn about dam removal, the challenges facing different organisations across Europe as well as an important opportunity to exchange knowledge and develop networks that will help deliver dam removal in years to come. ‘The biggest obstacle to dam removal is in our heads”, we hope this workshop will help remove this dam.
Posted on August 29, 2017
The Angling Trust has released a 3-minute video to highlight the impacts of agriculture on the ecology of rivers, in particular on fish and the invertebrates on which they feed. The video has been released to coincide with publication of a major investigation into the problem of agricultural pollution by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, published in The Guardian.
The Environment Agency's 2016 report on pollution incidents can be viewed here.
Posted on August 16, 2017
In case you have missed the recent flurry of news re Pacific pink salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, turning up in unusually high numbers in both rod and net catches around the British Isles, here is the latest advice to download from the Environment Agency.
The take home messages for if you capture a pink salmon:
Posted on August 14, 2017
On Friday 4th August, WTT were invited to contribute to a workshop on Survey Awareness Training, organised by the Environment Agency at Lateral House in Leeds. This was in response to the tree works across Yorkshire which caused some consternation and has already resulted in the production of a briefing note – Tree Works: Lessons Learned.
The stated aim was to provide a clear message to EA staff and external surveyors involved in tree management, to ensure that survey work will be carried out in a consistent manner using the methodology provided during the workshop.
Both Jonny Grey and Paul Gaskell were involved both in the field and in the news at various times in the build up to this workshop, which morphed and changed date on numerous occasions. Ultimately, Jonny gave the presentation on Friday and here reports back for us.
Posted on August 11, 2017
We are delighted to announce that WTT’s latest recruit is Ed Eley, our Assistant Conservation Officer, who’ll work especially closely with Mike Blackmore and Andy Thomas in southern England. We chose Ed from a field of truly excellent applicants, impressed by his passion for rivers and wild trout and his practical background, including some high-level chainsaw skills; he’s also a very keen trout fisher.
Ed’s post is inspired by Pasco James, a young man who died tragically in 2010 and in whose memory we hold our annual 3 Fly Fundraiser at Meon Springs Trout Fishery. The money this event has raised will fund Ed’s post and hopefully allow him to absorb knowledge from Mike, Andy and the other WTT top-notch chaps and contribute to our work across the south.
Posted on August 07, 2017
On the WTT blog, another PhD candidate from the prolific group of Dr Martyn Lucas at Durham University has offered us some insight into heron predation.
Angus Lothian has always been interested in animal behaviour and studied seabird breeding behaviour to fish migration behaviour during the course of a BSc and MRes at the University of Glasgow. At the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), he monitored the emigration of Atlantic salmon smolts in the River Deveron, Scotland, and picked up invaluable skills in telemetry techniques which ultimately led him to his PhD. Currently, he is furthering our understanding of how fish behave around engineered structures in rivers, such as weirs and fishways, and establishing passage success for various species of coarse fish, as well as our beloved trout.
The observed predation by herons was an interesting by-product of tagging work which Angus undertook and which he hopes to expand upon during repeat monitoring this coming Autumn / Winter.
Posted on August 07, 2017
WTT Conservation Officer Tim Jacklin gives an update below on a weir removal project on the Brailsford Brook. The Brook had over 40 weirs, approximately one every 40 metres. They were installed to create a series of fishable pools in a small brook, but the pools are silted and the weirs are disrupting the natural functioning of the Brook and its wildlife – including trout. You can read Tim’s Advisory Visit report here.
Following weir removal, rivers and streams will adjust to the new flow regime and this period of adjustment may need some management, as Tim describes below:
The WTT has been working on the Brailsford Brook in Derbyshire where in August 2016 five weirs were removed to improve conditions for wild trout. Follow-up work this year has included further weir removals and work to increase bank stability. A number of alder root plates from trees being removed from a nearby lake restoration project provided a great opportunity for using natural materials to stabilise the outside of a meander bend. The bend was experiencing accelerated rates of erosion, leading to widening and shallowing of the river channel. The root plates were positioned to create a new bank line, then the bank was reprofiled behind. A 10-m wide buffer strip is to be fenced and planted with trees. The new bank provides great cover for fish around the outside of the bend and the increased stability will drive down the river bed level through scour, deepening the pool and creating good adult trout habitat.
Following removal of several small weirs on the Ednaston Brook, work was carried out to increase the stability of the banks (before the works).
Root plates from alder trees (which were being removed from the site of a nearby lake restoration) were used to protect the outside of a meander bend. These provide great cover for fish, plus will promote bed scour and deepening of the pool, making it more suitable for larger trout.
Further work will include fencing out livestock and planting trees to increase bank stability in the long term.
Posted on August 03, 2017
The Environment Agency seeks four new members for its Board, a good opportunity for a suitably-qualified WTT supporter strategically to influence the future protection of the environment in England.
More information on the website here also download this PDF.
Closing date for applications 11 September 2017.
Posted on August 01, 2017
Dr Cyril Bennett and the Salmon & Trout Conservation Trust UK have produced some excellent pictorial guides to help identify two invasive freshwater shrimp species: the killer and the demon shrimp.
The killer shrimp guide includes a photo of a juvenile and illustrates how easily this invader can be inadvertently spread by anglers, boaters and so on. A timely reminder on biosecurity: Check, Clean, Dry!
These guides, a more comprehensive but very simple key from the Freshwater Biological Association covering the majority of invasive shrimp and isopods (both here and on the horizon), and more on biosecurity can be found on the WTT website: https://www.wildtrout.org/content/biosecurity
Posted on July 21, 2017
The Wild Trout Trust is currently seeking an additional Director (Trustee) to join its Board of Directors. We are particularly interested in an individual in possession of significant professional communications and marketing experience, and who would be able to use this to provide strategic direction to the WTT’s communications activities.
The role entails attending four Board meetings per year in London plus preparation for meetings (proposing agenda items and reading Board papers including accounts, budget, business plan, and reports). Trustees are also encouraged to attend other WTT events, in particular the Annual Conservation Awards (October) and the Annual Get-Together (May/June). In addition, Trustees are expected to undertake Board activities between meetings remotely. An indicative time commitment over and above the four days of meetings is four further days. The post is unpaid, although reasonable travel expenses are recoverable.
Please apply by letter with a CV. Applications should be sent to: The Wild Trout Trust via: office@wildtrout.org. Your application should address:
Posted on July 19, 2017
The Wessex Chalk Stream and Rivers Trust have some fishing days to sell to raise money for their valuable work on these iconic chalk streams. Details are below.
If you would like to purchase a day (or more) please contact Lee Bush at admin@wcsrt.org.uk
Location and description
Minimum price
RIVER TEST
Posted on July 18, 2017
"River beds are dry, wildlife is suffering, but no one has come close to mentioning a drought. What’s going on?"
Many of you will be painfully aware of the plight of groundwater-fed rivers in the southern half of England; after a particularly dry winter, they are notable by their absence. Their plight is highlighted in a recent article by Catherine Moncrieff, Freshwater Programme and Policy Manager, WWF-UK, available here. Read how and why the Blueprint for Water coalition are lobbying the Government and water companies.
On the WTT blog, Jess Picken has just provided us with a timely update from her PhD research - she is starting to reveal just how markedly the invertebrate (riverfly) community may be affected by even relatively short periods of low flow. Robust, experimental evidence like this is crucial for organisations like WWF and the Blueprint for Water team to include in their arguments. See the original outline of her PhD project, here.
