WTT Blog

Did you know that when an emerging mayfly pushes through the surface-film of water to hatch, it's demonstrating a physical feat equivalent to a human breaking through a kitchen table-top?

Having kids and teachers witness this feat - and exactly HOW they do it (along with the strange transformation from "dun" to "spinner") in any of our upwing riverflies are key experiences within "Mayfly in the Classroom" - now available in full-colour guidebook form.

You can click here to order a copy

Twenty-five years ago, I walked the Pennine Way parallel to the River Aire and stopped below Newfield Bridge for lunch. I imagine my casting arm was twitching slightly at the sight of the limestone stream with its clear water, mossy stones, and marsh marigold fringe. The white-water cascading over the weir was framed neatly through the arch of the road bridge, picturesque yes, but certainly not natural….

Almost 20 years later and I returned to that very spot with local EA Fisheries Officer, Pete Turner. I’d not long arrived in Yorkshire with my WTT cap on, and he was giving me a whistle stop tour and introduction to the Upper Aire Project (more of which, later). I looked at it then objectively with my fish passage polaroids on. We both agreed it was one for the wish list of removals....

Thanks to the enthusiasm of local volunteers, the urban areas of Somerset’s Axe and Sheppey river catchments now have 16 newly-trained riverfly monitors to look after them, as part of our Trout in the Town TWIST (Transforming Waterways in Somerset’s Towns) project.

A guest blog post from Lennard Powell of the Afan Valley Angling Club near Neath in South Wales. The Afon Afan and the Nant Clais, like too many rivers across the UK, suffers from sewage pollution and excess sedimentation. Lennard and his fellow members have carried out a detailed investigation and the resulting report has been passed to Dwyr Cymru Welsh Water ( who are a ‘not for profit’ water company) and the regulator in Wales, National Resources Wales. Receipt of the report has been acknowledged and we await with interest to see what action will result. This map on the Rivers Trust website identifies where the sewerage network discharges and overflows into rivers in England and Wales. Andy Thomas of the Wild Trout Trust carried out an Advisory Visit to the club’s 17 miles of water in 2010. Lennard can be contacted at lennard.powell@ntlworld.com

We’re delighted to announce that PARR (Pewsey Avon River Restoration) is the latest urban river restoration group to become an accredited Trout in the Town chapter.

When Theo Pike, our Trout in the Town officer for the south of England, undertook an Advisory Visit for the upper Avon in Pewsey (Wiltshire) recently, he identified a number of important improvements that a motivated community group could make to boost the health of the river for fish, insects, birds – and local people too.

WTT's Theo Pike has been busy surveying rivers in six Somerset towns for the Wild Trout Trust’s TWIST (Transforming Waterways In Somerset Towns) project.

April and May are the peak time for sea trout smolt migration, when some young brown trout decide it is time to leave the river and go to sea. But what is a smolt? Denise Ashton explains.

Danielle Marchant, Early Career Researcher from Queen Mary University of London, tells us about her PhD work on plastic pollution in freshwaters

One of the most exciting and heartening aspects of our work is when ‘word of mouth’ contacts help to spread the love for rivers a little further. Here is such a tale from the Dales

The Wild Trout Trust’s new TWIST (Transforming Waterways In Somerset Towns) project is an idea that aims to improve the health of urban rivers and streams in Cheddar, Wookey, Wookey Hole, Wells, Shepton Mallet and Croscombe.

Historically, most of the rivers which drain the hills around Somerset have been exploited for their water – first by mills, and then by towns which grew up around them. But far too often, these urban developments have left their rivers polluted, covered in concrete, broken up by weirs, and speeding water down to pinch points where flooding is even more of a problem.

Continuing to process our flow of application responses (Thank you!) to our invitation to take part, we can now add some fantastic projects from the North of England to the list of officially accredited chapters.

This initiative was launched as part of the Urban River Conclave in Stalybridge (pictured above).