Friends of Tawd Valley: Our Journey to Gold

We recently shared the great news that Friends of Tawd Valley, a Lancashire community group, have been awarded Gold Level in our Trout in the Town project. In this guest blog, the group’s Chair Mike Flaherty details the five-year river conservation journey behind this incredible achievement.

It all started in the early months of 2021, when three different types of pollution incident occurred on the River Tawd within a single week. During the aftermath, I unfortunately started to hear reports from the local community about fish deaths in the river. I shot down to the Tawd Valley to document and photograph what had happened, so that I could later inform the Environment Agency. Seeing the fish suffer was quite upsetting for me, as I’m passionate about our wildlife and its welfare.

The Environment Agency conducted a brilliant and thorough investigation, and they managed to find two out of the three pollution sources. Nonetheless, the incident sent shockwaves through the town, and it resulted in many members of the public contacting our local MP at the time. I was then approached by Terry Lake, who at that time was the Chair of a community group called Friends of Tawd Valley — having come across my environmental efforts on social media, he asked me to stand for a committee position, which I agreed to do.

Of the fish deaths that resulted from the three pollution incidents, most were chub and dace. But there was one fish that came as quite a surprise: a brown trout. I was taken aback that these fish were living in the River Tawd, and as you can imagine it excited me to no end. This spurred me to contact the Wild Trout Trust for advice on how I could improve the river, to make it a better habitat for fish and other wildlife. The Trust sent over Dr Paul Gaskell — a Conservation Officer with specialist knowledge of urban rivers.

Paul wrote up a report of his findings, and invited Friends of Tawd Valley to join the Trust’s urban river project, Trout in the Town. This gave us a structured pathway for building our river conservation skills. Over the past five years, we’ve actioned the ideas in Paul’s advisory report and kick-started many other activities. We’ve assisted with the removal of Cobbs Clough Weir, which posed a massive obstacle to fish migration. We’ve created wetlands, repaired riverbanks, managed riverside woodland and wildflower meadows, and mapped the Tawd and its tributaries.

We’ve conducted countless riverfly surveys, tackled non-native invasive species, and performed endless river clean-ups. We’ve led events and volunteer days with the local community. We’ve even helped children to rear young brown trout and mayfly nymphs in their classrooms, educating them about the importance of looking after rivers. It has all been magical.

Through efforts like these, Friends of Tawd Valley has worked its way up to the coveted Gold Level within the Trout in the Town project. We are so proud of this amazing achievement, which honours the tireless dedication of our amazing volunteers, and also the support we’ve received from organisations like the Wild Trout Trust; Ribble Rivers Trust; Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside; and the West Lancashire Borough Council Ranger Service, to name just a few. I’m so grateful for everyone’s help.

For my part, I’m as passionate as ever about protecting Tawd Valley Park. As a kid, I spent my holidays climbing through the Devil’s Cave, riding my bike over the Camel Humps, and sitting on the riverbanks. On those hot summer days, I drank in all the wonders that the valley has to offer — it is such a special place, and it still has my heart. I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to improve it, not just for the local community, but also for the wildlife that calls the park home.

Our group is under no illusion about what might be in store for our river. At the end of the day, it does journey through some heavily industrialised areas of Skelmersdale; it could still suffer from pollution events in the future. But this is why our work is so crucial: while the water quality is not perfect, through persistent effort it is improving every single day. Progress takes time, vigilance, and hard work. Long may the Tawd thrive.