News

The UK River Prize is an award run by the River Restoration Centre which celebrates the best in river restoration and catchment management.After much deliberation the judges selected the four category winners;

• Allt Lorgy,
• River Aller & Horner Water,
• Rivers Derwent, Eden & Kent,
• River Wandle.

The overall winner of the Nigel Holmes Trophy will be announced on the 26th April during the awards dinner at the River Restonation Centre Annual Conference in Blackpool.

Fishing for Forces, the excellent charity working for wounded forces' veterans, is holding a special fundraising lunch at the Knightsbridge Barracks of the Household Cavalry on Wednesday 4 May 2016.

The lunch will be preceded by a tour of the farrier's workshop, the stables and the Barracks Museum. Booking in advance is essential and to do so, contact Bill Howell on bill@fishingforforces.org or 07850 373760.

Missed out on the Wild Trout Trust auction ? Read on.....

Kind friends and supporters of Wessex Chalk Stream and Rivers Trust have very generously donated some exciting and rarely available fishing days for the Trust to sell in order to raise much needed funds.Many of these fabulous fishing days are on private or club waters - see details below. 

If you would like to buy any of these day, please contact Lee Bush on 01962 676508 or email: admin@wcsrt.org.uk

A group of conservation groups in North West England has made a funny short video highlighting the possible impact on rivers of domestic septic tanks. This appears to be an emerging (and under appreciated) issue for pollution of our rivers.

For example, work at Southampton University is showing significant loads of phosphorous in the River Itchen likely coming from domestic sewage tanks. That phosphorous promotes algal growth much to the detriment of the natural fauna and flora of the river.

See the Call of Nature video at below and website: http://www.callofnature.info/

An interesting talk will take place on Friday 8th April 2016 at 8pm at Forest Row in East Sussex.

The illustrated talk is about Broadstone stream, Forest Row by Guy Woodward and Alan Hildrew from University of London. Probably the world’s longest running (40 years) continuing detailed study of a stream. A fascinating insight into the effect of environmental changes on the invertebrates and on food chains in this Ashdown Forest Stream

Venue: Community Centre, Hartfield Road, Forest Row, RH18 5DZ.”

This short video  from the Loughs Agency introduces the aquatic habitats of the Finn catchment in Co Donegal, Ireland. It discusses the interaction between the landscape, landuse and water. Significant catchment impacts and natural processes are highlighted and the concept of integrated catchment management incorporating action is discussed in the context of active partnership development.

Iti s a good summary of the processes and issues that impact the quality of river habitat, relevant to many catchments and rivers.

This is an uplifting story of a river that has recovered from chronic pollution to become a superb fishing river. Watch this excellent three part series on BBC iPlayer.

Will Millard travels from its source in the Brecon Beacons National Park to Merthyr Tydfil, and fishes for wild brown trout in an unlikely location.

Tony Rees, Chairman of the SE Wales Rivers Trust and good friend to the WTT assisted with the making of this mini-series.

Our good friends of the Monnow Rivers Association are running a fundraising auction to support the fantastic work they do for the Monnow and its’ tributaries. The auction is run on Fly Forum and ends at midnight on 2 March. 

Click here to see the lots and place a bid.

We have some late additions to the auction, including: 

A day fishing an exclusive family beat on the Upper Test with expert guide Bill Latham,

salmon fishing on the River Tyne with James Stokoe, winner of the BBC’s ‘The Big Fish’

Countryfile on Sunday 14th Feb had a feature on flood management which covered the theme of working with nature.It is well worth watching!  It is good to see a mainstream programme with a large audience (8.6m viewers) putting the case for natural flood management and showing the risks of dredging. 

Click here to see the programme on the BBC iPlayer.

The first section, starting at 7mins in to the programme, looks as the example of the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor where the National Trust has been using a range of techniques to hold water back and slow flows on the River Aller. For a more comprehensive view of the work at Holnicote, see the video below.

A long overdue review of our freshwater and marine recreational fisheries has been compiled and published this month by Dr Ian Winfield, one of the UK's leading fish biologists based at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster.

Ian presents an overview of these fisheries by describing their main features using the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services, and then considers the threats that they face and the management that has been developed in response. While we at WTT tend to dwell on river habitat issues, Ian reminds us of the problems stillwater fisheries face too, with for example, reference to the scientific research underpinning the improvement of the world renowned Loch Leven trout fishery.

The paper is open access, free to download here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12562-016-0967-y

The Wild Trout Trust, in partnership with the Environment Agency, is holding a demonstration of practical habitat improvement techniques for river trout fisheries on Saturday 27th February on the River Welland, Stamford. 

The day will be led by Wild Trout Trust Conservation Officer, Tim Jacklin, and there will be an opportunity to get hands-on experience and learn techniques that can be applied on your own fisheries. All welcome ! 

Click here for more information on the demonstration day. 

Before the Wild Trout Trust can deliver habitat improvement projects, we often have to apply for, and be granted, Flood Defence Consent (FDC) from the EA in England. The FDC process applies to all work on main rivers – which is almost every project we deliver.

This is a necessary bit of ‘red tape’ as it checks that the work we do won’t cause an unacceptable flood risk.Currently, FDC applications cost £50 each though our close partnership with many EA area teams often means that fee is waived. In an attempt to recover some of their admin cost, the EA in England is proposing to increase this fee to £170 plus a £70 compliance check fee (and the possibility of further charges for multiple structures on one site).

Clearly the money for this will come out of the project budget, and not be spent on delivering habitat improvement. We feel this is nonsense, especially when we are very often partnering with the EA to deliver these projects very cost effectively to help them achieve their (and our) targets!  

The River Restoration Centre's annual River Prize celebrates the achievements of those individuals and organisations working to improving the natural functioning of our rivers and catchments.

The overall winner bags the Nigel Holmes Trophy and £10,000.

Further details at http://www.therrc.co.uk/uk-river-prize

The RRC Annual Network Conference will be on the 26th and 27th of April at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool.

This great conference aims to capture a wide ranging view of river and catchment restoration and to provide a unique opportunity to connect all functions interested in, and involved with, restoring and managing healthy, functioning rivers. The event attracts the major players in river restoration across the UK and is massively informative and good fun.

Further details at http://www.therrc.co.uk/conference-booking