News

Not one but two culverts in the South Cumbria have been removed over the last couple of months. A culvert is defined as an enclosed artificial channel or pipe that is used to continue a watercourse under ground or a structure. Culverts can have a number of negative impacts on the environment, including loss of habitat and environmental features. Culverts impede or block movement of fish and other aquatic species, as they fragment river habitat and disrupt natural processes. Here…

We’re thrilled that The Sir John Fisher Foundation have continued to support SCRT’s Wild About Rivers education project. We have received a grant for £2575 to continue this exciting work. What is Wild About Rivers? Wild About Rivers is an education programme, run by SCRT, with funding helping to target schools in the Barrow and Furness area. It supports classroom visits and river-based visits so that children can learn more about river habitats and wildlife. It also provide a vital…

Electrofishing season is well under way with SCRT carrying out lots of surveys across our five main catchment areas so far. In total this year, we have carried out 15 surveys, with more to come! If you don’t know what Electrofishing is, it’s a survey technique used to assess the health, density and species of fish populations in our becks and rivers. Data collected every year, helps us to identify watercourses in need of restoration and helps us collect data…

The latest Duddon River Association Newsletter is now available, with all the happenings in the Duddon Valley! Invasive Species Control, Upper Duddon Landscape Recovery project updates, peatlands, events…what more could you want. Read all about it here: Duddon River Association Newsletter_Issue 3 Want to know more about the Duddon River Association, follow their socials or read how they link with SCRT here: https://scrt.co.uk/our-area/

Last month, the Love Windermere Non-Mains Drainage Group came together to map private sewage systems around Lake Windermere. Private sewage systems include septic tanks, package treatment plants and cesspits. Recent source apportionment data shows these sources contribute to around 20% of the total phosphorus in Lake Windermere. We are now working on an approach to target these areas and assess the outputs before we roll this out across the rest of our catchment areas.  South Cumbria Rivers Trust lead the…

The Lower Duddon catchment has secured funding for environmental work, through a new partnership of South Cumbria Rivers Trust, Sustainable Duddon, Duddon River Association and the South Lakes Red Squirrel Group. The partnership has received £24,000 from Cumberland Council as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund & Rural England Prosperity Fund. The partnership aims to develop a baseline measurement in order to establish ‘SMART’ objectives for subsequent interventions. Interventions will be aimed at improving biodiversity, resilience and improving the…

This year we developed a bid through the Big Give Green Match Fund for our Wild Lakes: Reed Revival Project around Lake Windermere. Running from 18th – 25th April, the Green Match Fund doubled all donations received. This is done through pledged support from Champions, who support global projects of their choosing. We needed to reach a target of £80,000 for the project – which we didn’t quite reach but the public and businesses who pledged support helped us raise…

Our 2023 Electrofishing report is now available! Our project officers have been working hard pulling all the information together from the electrofishing surveys completed during summer 2023. The report offers you an insight into what fish species we found in local watercourses. We had fantastic volunteers who join us for these sessions, learning all about local rivers and the species they support. Electrofishing is a monitoring technique we use to assess the abundance and health of fish in our local…

Sunday the 3rd March 2024 was World Wildlife Day! A day dedicated to recognising the roles and contributions of wildlife to people and the planet. Freshwater habitats such as rivers, lakes and ponds are essential for diverse and healthy wildlife ecosystems. The work we do here at SCRT aims to actively improve these habitats for aquatic species such as salmon, trout, otter, kingfishers and more! One project with a heavy focus on these habitats is our involvement in the Upper…

Sharing stories of why the River Kent is special is key to safeguarding its future. From knowledge comes understanding, helping us act to improve and protect this special river. With this in mind, South Cumbria Rivers Trust are running a pilot project; Trout in the Classroom. What is it? You might not know that we engage with schools but we do so in a variety of ways. Gone are the days of talking with slides. Our presentations are interactive, providing…