Hello there, I’m Ruby. Over the past few days, I’ve tagged along with the team here at SCRT as part of my work experience. Firstly, I want to say thank you, often work experience can involve making tea and sorting out the cupboard. But that is miles away from what I have been up to.
From e-fishing to marking up trees for leaky dams, I have glimpsed the breadth of the work done here at SCRT. One thing I found particularly interesting was the innovative technology they are developing. They are trailing technology to help deal with phosphates entering waterways from private sewage systems. It’s really inspiring to see the problems you hear about in the classroom are seen in the real world and that people are working towards solutions.
A water quality site that SCRT sample and analyse.
Another aspect of the job, that I didn’t think about that much to begin with, was people management. Talking to landowners, community engagement, dealing with difference of opinion. It really surprised me how much of the team’s time is taken up by people. But you can tell the team really want to educate people about rivers and how we can best take care of them. Even just thinking about what you put down your sink can have an impact.
I got the chance to take a look at one of the possible sites where a weir could be removed, allowing species such as salmon and trout to get back up the river. I mean it’s kind of obvious, they have no chance of getting upstream if there is a massive block of concrete/stone in the way. It was interesting to watch them assess the site. They looked at aspects such as how the opposing beck would be affected and how they would get the machinery to remove the concrete with the least disruption. From what I gathered removing major weirs is important work, as it is allows a river to return back to its natural process as much as possible.
SCRT have another project looking at installing eel passes on smaller weirs in the catchment. One technique I think is great, is eel rope. This is rope that was used to grow mussels so has lots of fibres. It gives eels something to climb up, so they are basically eel climbing frames!
Thanks for having me SCRT. I’ll be back to do some volunteering.
(July 2023)