Posted on October 09, 2015
The Lincolnshire Chalkstreams Project are holding a festival from October 24-30 to celebrate chalk streams. There will be lots of free events for adults and children.
Click here for details.
The Wild Trout Trust has been a member of the LCSP steering committee for many years, and we have worked together on funding and delivering projects to help these valuable, but often forgotten chalkstreams.
Posted on October 09, 2015
Hydropower is lauded as a 'green' energy source. But actually, it seems little is known amongst the angling and river conservation movement of the potential (often realised) for hydropower schemes to fragment river habitats and their fish populations, prevent free passage of those fish along the river, suck fish into the turbines and give a new lease of life to weirs that should come out for the benefit of the river.
In the UK, some have described a Klondike-like rush to fit hydropower schemes to rivers in Scotland, often with poor (even non-existent) fish passage arrangements. But the threat to the UK's rivers seems small change when compared to the situation in the Balkans, highlighted in a new report published by RiverWatch:http://balkanrivers.net/en/news/campaign-brochure-now-available
The report paints a worrying picture of 2700 projected hydropower schemes in a region famed for its pristine rivers and unique fish assemblages.
Posted on October 07, 2015
Thames Water - Wild Trout TrustConservation Awards 2015
Over 100 guests attended a Wild Trout Trust evening at the Savile Club in Mayfair to present the 2015 awards for the best river habitat conservation projects. The evening was introduced by WTT Director, Shaun Leonard, with the awards presented by Richard Aylard of Thames Water, who generously sponsor the Conservation Awards.
The Conservation Awards recognise and encourage excellence in the management and conservation of wild trout habitat, celebrating the efforts, skills and ingenuity of projects carried out both by professionals and by grass roots voluntary organisations.
Posted on October 05, 2015
We are well aware that pollution in its many guises is typically bad news for trout: nutrient enrichment causing increased oxygen demands; fine sediments blocking up spawning gravels; or contaminants wiping out food supplies are just a few of the more 'obvious' contenders. But now there is evidence of something even more insidious impacting upon the very blueprint of trout.
WTT friends at the University of Exeter have found that historic mining activities in south west England has led to a reduction in genetic diversity of brown trout and indicating that human activity can alter the genetic patterns of wild populations at an alarming rate.
To investigate the genetic impacts of metal pollution, the research team compared DNA samples from fifteen brown trout populations from heavily-polluted and relatively uncontaminated rivers. Their analysis revealed that trout from metal polluted rivers derived from a single common ancestor during the medieval period (~950 years ago) when tin mining in the region was first documented.
Posted on September 28, 2015
The village of Dunston, near Lincoln, held a medieval fayre at the weekend where Lincolnshire Rivers Trust and the Wild Trout Trust joined forces to showcase habitat improvements which have been carried out on the Dunston Beck, which flows through the village. The stand included the EmRiver, a scale model demonstrating river processes, which proved a major attraction and sparked many discussions about drought, flooding, sustainable river management and wildlife. Also on show were a selection of bugs and grubs from the Beck, plus an area for children to colour-in pictures of aquatic life, with a prize for the best picture. This was won by 6-year old Annabelle Watts with a splendid pair of trout (pictured below).
Posted on September 24, 2015
The latest Riverfly Partnerships newsletter is available here.
Many anglers and other volunteers take part in regular monitoring of the invertebrate life in their local river using the Riverfly Partnership’s method.This volunteer monitoring programme has proved an invaluable early warning system for problems with water quality that the EA can act upon.
Posted on September 22, 2015
WTT Conservation Officer, Tim Jacklin, has been working on the the Bentley Brook, a tributary of the River Dove, Derbyshire, to remove an obstruction to fish passage. A former packhorse bridge collapsed into the brook decades ago, the debris forming a swift flowing cascade and impounding the brook upstream into a slow-flowing, silty reach.
Working with the Environment Agency’s Fisheries, Biodiversity and Geomorphology team at Lichfield, Tim removed the stone from the river and installed large woody debris at four locations upstream. The bed of the brook will now naturally regrade to expose gravel and create more varied and valuable habitat.
Many thanks to the landowner, Tissington Estate, and the tenant farmer Mike Herridge for their cooperation and assistance. Leek and District Fly Fishing Association (www.ladffa.com) will benefit from the improvements along with other angling interests on the brook.
(very) large woody debris ready to be installed
Posted on September 08, 2015
Andy Thomas, WTT Conservation Officer, is busy directing operations with 360 excavators and dumper trucks on the River Ems in West Sussex.
The diggers are being used to create 300m of sinuous channel with pools and shallow riffles that will support enhanced diversity of flora and fauna, including trout, and which will function over a wide range of flow conditions. The works are designed to make the most of the flow augmentation provided by Portsmouth Water in the late summer and autumn.
The Ems is a natural winterbourne with some of the upstream reaches naturally drying out during dry summer months as the groundwater springs subside after autumn/winter rainfall. The river is currently in poor ecological condition due to abstraction pressures and man-made obstructions that limit fish passage up and down the system. The prospects for augmenting flow to offset abstraction pressures through this reach in combination with channel shape modifications provides opportunities for restoring a high quality chalk stream capable of supporting a healthy and diverse ecology
Posted on September 08, 2015
Pete Tyjas - Devon Guide, editor of the excellent online free magazine Eat, Sleep Fish and supporter of the WTT – is donating all the profits from selling ESF T shirts to the Wild Trout Trust, and has just given us another £200.
Huge thanks to Pete and all who have bought a T shirt. We promise to use the money wisely on practical river habitat improvement work.
The T shirts have the Eat, Sleep, Fish logo on the front, the Wild Trout Trust logo on the right sleeve and the words 'Dry Fly Addict' on the back.Price is £19.99 plus £2.00 postage and packing for delivery in the UK.
Go to the Eat, Sleep, Fish website to purchase. Click here
To read the latest of edition of this excellent not for profit magazine (and no adverts) magazine, click here.
Posted on August 28, 2015
The High Court has granted permission for WW-F UK, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal to challenge Defra and the EA over their failure to protect some of Englands most precious rivers, lakes and coastal areas from agricultural pollution.
The focus of the court case is on habitats that are protected by law and known as Natura 2000 sites. They include national treasures like Poole Harbour and the Rivers Avon, Wye & Eden, where pollution is having a harmful impact on species that should thrive in these habitats. The UK government is required by law to take all the necessary steps to ensure they are at good health by December 2015, but it is not going to achieve this. .
This is because current action is not sufficient to tackle the scale of the problem. To protect these special habitats adequately, WWF, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal want the government to use all the tools at its disposal to ensure these precious places are properly protected and restored for people and wildlife.
Posted on August 27, 2015
From 1st September the Salmon and Trout Association will have a new name: Salmon & Trout Conservation UK (S&TC UK).
For more details, click here.
Posted on August 27, 2015
The Environment Agency has awarded a contract to the Angling Trust to help deliver the National Angling Strategy. The contract has three priorities: to increase participation, tackle illegal angling and improve angling facilities. The funding for this work comes from the rod licence fees paid by anglers.Click here for more details.
The rod licence also funds some of the habitat advice and practical project work delivered by the Wild Trout Trust.The WTT works with the Angling Trust and Salmon and Trout Association to provide information and advice for their campaign work.
Posted on August 27, 2015
Land management within the catchment, and in particular, soil management, have a huge influence on the health of our rivers.
Two recent papers talk about this issue.
The first is an academic paper that looks at soil degradation in the West Country and which crops have the greatest impact, resulting in high levels of runoff (causing ‘spatey’ rivers) and also soil erosion, localised flooding and poor recharge to aquifers. The paper is called 'Soil structural degradation in SW England and its impact on surface-water runoff generation'.Click here for a copy of the paper.
Posted on August 20, 2015
Marcus Walters and WTT's other friends at the Moray Firth Trout Initiative continue to do good work with trout in the north-east of Scotland. Marcus' latest newsletter is here including a very interesting piece on loch spawning in trout.
We'd be keen to hear of any experiences of WTT members with trout spawning in other 'stillwaters'.Email the Director, Shaun Leonard: director@wildtrout.org
Posted on August 20, 2015
WTT has worked closely with the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project over a number of years, doing good things for a number of little known but sometimes beautiful chalkstreams in the Lincolnshire Wolds.Ruth Craig, the Project Officer, is off on maternity leave and cover for her post is advertised here
Very best wishes, Ruth, from all at WTT.
