News

One of WTT's partners in Scotland, Marcus Walters, has produced an excellent report of the activities of the Moray Firth Trout Initiative in 2013, including some really interesting work on stable isotope analysis and radio tracking of trout in the Deveron catchment and large conifer woody debris trials in Strath Rannoch - click here to see the report.

The Environment Agency is running a consultation regarding new standards for discharges to the River Itchen, the closing date for which is January 3rd 2014. 

The Salmon and Trout Association and Hampshire Wildlife Trust are campaigning vigorously to reduce the amount of phosphorous entering the River Itchen, and this consultation is an opportunity to influence the EA to improve the water quality in this iconic chalk stream. Whilst the WTT ‘s focus is on practical advice and habitat improvement, we do support campaigns such as this and would encourage our members and supporters to participate in this consultation.

A copy of HWT briefing document that describes the issue is available here.

Dear WTT Supporter,

Thank you for your ongoing support of the Trust through 2013, a year that brought more great success in improving life for trout in our rivers. The WTT 2012/13 annual report will very soon be available through the Charity Commission website (www.charitycommission.gov.uk) and the section on our activities in that year is available by clicking here, but the highlights include:

• 59 advisory visits
• 33 project proposals
• 28 practical demonstration events
• 4 significant enhancement projects
• in all this work, over 220km of river habitat enhanced
• talks to conferences, fishing club events and student groups on practical habitat enhancement with an audience totalling approximately 1350 people
• Mayfly in the Classroom training to 38 teachers and volunteers and thence to around 800 schoolchildren
• two new staff members - another Conservation Officer in the south (Mike Blackmore) and a Research and Engagement Officer (Ben Tyser, who sadly left us in November 2013 but replaced by Sue Scott from Jan 2014)
• lots of development of the WTT website, including an expanding library of information papers, videos and interesting stuff
• £55K from our annual auction to drive our cost-effective work

2014 (and beyond) will be a truly challenging time for WTT, to ensure we can continue to fund and deliver the practical work we do, getting people involved with their rivers and protecting and enhancing habitat. We very much look forward to your invaluable and continuing support and hope to see you at one or more of these events

Thank you to everyone who supported this year's draw either by purchasing tickets or donating a prize. This has enabled us to raise almost £3000.

And the Winners are...

1st Prize kindly donated by The Peacock at Rowsley: Mr R Shields of Derbyshire.A night's accommodation for two with 3-course dinner and breakfast, and 2 high season tickets to fish the Derbyshire Wye.

2nd Prize kindly donated by Sage: Mr R Allen of Inverness-shire.A Sage Z-Axis 4-piece fly rod.

3rd Prize kindly donated by The Wild Trout Trust: Mr J Juckes of Leicestershire.A day's trout fishing on a southern English chalk stream with WTT director, Shaun Leonard.

4th Prize kindly donated by The Wild Trout Trust: Mr E Wakeham of Somerset.Life membership of the Wild Trout Trust.

5th Prize kindly donated by Rother Valley Organics: Mr C Couzens of Surrey.An organic mutton hamper.

In September 2013, on the upper River Witham in Lincolnshire, a major river restoration project was completed at Easton Walled Gardens, near Colsterworth. 

The WTT's Conservation Officer, Tim Jacklin, initially carried out an advisory visit to this site back in 2008, and when the Environment Agency’s Fisheries & Biodiversity team in Lincoln began the Upper Witham Habitat Restoration Project, this site was an obvious candidate.WTT prepared detailed plans and carried out further site visits with Environment Agency staff which enabled the necessary consents to be secured.  Matthew Parr of the EA Fisheries & Biodiversity team project managed the works which included extensive channel narrowing and fencing out livestock.  

This part of the Witham has suffered two major fish kills through farm pollution in recent years and these works will greatly assist the recovery of the trout and native crayfish populations.  This site forms part of the wider Upper Witham Habitat Restoration Project and the Environment Agency would be interested to hear from other potential partners.  Easton Walled Gardens are open to the public from spring to autumn (www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk).

The Environment Agency has published guidance on weir removal. The report reviews the latest scientific evidence on the impact of weir removal, lowering and modification on rivers and their ecosystems. Removing or altering the height of a weir is a potential way of improving connectivity along the river, with benefits to habitat, ecology and the way that the river works to manage floods, drought and sediment. Although often perceived to be prohibitively expensive, analysis often reveals that weir removal is more cost-effective than maintenance, replacement or the introduction of a fish pass, for example.

Click here for the summary guidance

Click here for the full report  

The University of Glasgow has a strong and ever-developing group of researchers looking at aspects of trout ecology, under the guidance of Prof Colin Adams, based at the University's Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE) on the shores of Loch Lomond. See http://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/bahcm/researchfacilitiesgroups/scene/

Trout-related projects include studies on genetics, population structuring, impacts of predation, sea trout life history strategies and ferox trout.The research student looking at ferox is Martin Hughes who has a great page on Facebook where you can keep up with his work: https://www.facebook.com/feroxproject.Martin is currently rearing some ferox eggs gathered from Wester Ross - exciting and nerve-wracking times!

WTT will keep in touch with SCENE's trout group and use its newsletters and journal, Salmo Trutta, to spread word of what the research tells us.

Would you like to work in Environmental Conservation?As part of the Heritage Lottery 'Cherish Eden' project, hosted by the Eden Rivers Trust, there are 6 vacancies for Apprenticeships.

Closing date for applications is December 6th

For full details, click here 

Many of the problems facing rivers have their root causes in the catchment: diffuse pollution from fertilisers and pesticides coming from farmland, high levels of silt from roads and fields, lack of flow due to abstraction of ground water, flashy spates due to upland drainage. These are big issues and need co-operation between farmers, water companies, government agencies and organisations like the Rivers Trust and the WTT to resolve.  And they need to be tackled at a catchment level so that they impact the whole river from source to sea.

In England and the Welsh borders, the EA and Defra have adopted a ‘Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) and just appointed over 100  ‘Catchment Partners’ who will lead the development and delivery of a Catchment Plan to resolve these issues.  The Catchment Partners are locally based Rivers Trusts, Wildlife Trusts and similar charities. They have been given funding of around £11-12,000 per catchment to build their local partnerships (‘stakeholder engagement’) and develop a catchment plan.

The WTT will be working with Catchment Partners in the same way as we have always worked with groups who have any involvement in a river or lake. We will provide advice, deliver projects and, increasingly, train volunteers and professionals to enable them to deliver their Catchment Plans.

Many rivers are failing to achieve ‘good ecological status’ because they are fragmented into sections by weirs. It is not always obvious to most people why weirs are viewed as such a problem to fish and other wildlife in the river, especially as in many cases they have been there for a long time.

The two videos below explain the impact that weirs have on the way that the river functions and the impact on fish and all other wildlife in the river.

For lots more information on this topic, see our library page on 'weirs, culverts and barriers'

The Grayling Weekend in Derbyshire had to be moved from the original October weekend to the 23 & 24 November. This has resulted in two places being available on the Saturday (23rd). The cost is £35 per place and is only available to WTT members. To book one of these two places, please call Christina in the office on 023 9257 0985 or email: office@wildtrout.org as soon as possible.

J77 the Sea Trout Still Alive & Well

We heard in a 2012 WTT newsletter from Dr. Shona Marshall, biologist with the West Sutherland Fisheries Trust, about the progress of one tagged hen sea trout, J77. She was first tagged as a smolt in 2005 and the news is that the trout has appeared again in the May 2013 sweep netting programme in the Polla Estuary, alive, well and still growing, at over 25” long and 6lbs in weight.J77 is thought to be ten years old and to have spawned several times. Shona and her team are immensely proud of J77 and encourage anglers to release such prize specimens.

For more information about sea trout, click here.

If you have ever seen grayling spawning, the Grayling Research Trust would like to hear from you. See the following link for details: - 

http://www.graylingresearch.org/citizen-science/spawning-survey

Grayling spawn between late March and mid May, so we will post a reminder new item in the Spring. 

The WTT is a long term partner of the Moray Firth Trout Initiative on the east coast of Scotland, and our relationship with this project in its various forms goes back many years. We have worked together by supporting funding, providing practical advice, and, most recently, adding Mayfly in the Classroom to the project’s education initiative.

Click here for their latest newsletter.More information is available on their website: http://www.morayfirthtrout.org/