News

We have an exciting summer monitoring programme ahead, with various dates and locations for you to join us Electrofishing! These vital surveys allow us to assess the health and abundance of fish populations in our becks and rivers. Balsam Bashing events are ongoing in the catchment, with volunteers tackling the invasive non native species, Himalayan Balsam (HB). Repeat visits over a number of years, can eradicate this plant from entire areas, allowing native species to regenerate. Family river dipping! Bring…

We continue to organise a range of different events throughout the summer months for you to get involved in! Here are just some of the events we have been busy with the last week.. Fight the Aliens Day – completed Another year of the Fight the Aliens- Big Balsam Bash took place this weekend, with volunteers joining SCRT and Friends of the Lake District to do a large scale balsam bash. ‘Balsam Bashing’ refers to pulling Himalayan Balsam, an invasive…

The new “Love Windermere” partnership is a group of organisations from across South Cumbria that have come together to tackle the challenges facing Lake Windermere. Nutrients, climate change, more extreme weather patterns and increased seasonal tourism  have started to put the lake and its water quality under increasing pressure. These factors are causing ever increasing problems to the ecology of the lake, including an increased number of algal growths and a decline in wildlife and biodiversity. Members of the partnership…

The Bowston weir removal project has been five years in the making, with works underway to remove this three metre high weir at Bowston, Cumbria. Spanning the width of the River Kent SSS/SAC, Bowston weir is the largest weir to be removed this year under river restoration. Funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, removal of Bowston weir will allow the river to renaturalise; benefiting both people and wildlife. It will also see a 44% uplift in biodiversity,…

On 22nd June, there was a significant pollution incident on Cunsey beck, between Esthwaite Water and Windermere. Please find our initial statement about the incident here. 6th July – In addition to this, we have analysed the results of the water samples taken at Cunsey beck, which are available for your information, here.

SCRT staff and volunteers have been out and about the last two weeks, planting reeds for our reedbed restoration project. Funded by United Utilities through the CaST programme, these works will see over 800sq m of reedbed restoration around the shores of Lake Windermere. Reeds are vital habitat for fish, birds and invertebrates but they have declined significantly in recent years due to a number of reasons, including changing lake levels and boating activity. They have the amazing ability to…

On Wednesday 22nd June 2022 South Cumbria Rivers Trust (SCRT) were alerted by a member of the public to a pollution incident on Cunsey beck. It was reported that there had been a large number of fish deaths and visual accounts of grey and foul-smelling water. Environment Agency (EA) officers have attended the scene and started an investigation. The effects of such pollution can have a devastating event on a rivers ecology and may have profound impacts into the future;…

SCRT Statement Statement by Peter Evoy, South Cumbria Rivers Trust Director about a sediment incident on the River Kent South Cumbria Rivers Trust (SCRT) have been working for the last five years on the removal of unnecessary obstacles in our rivers that disrupt the natural ecology of our catchments. We have a project to remove Bowston weir, which spans the width of the River Kent SSSI/SAC, in South Cumbria. We contracted Ebsford Environmental to carry out the removal, and despite…

Our CaST project, Windermere reedbed restoration, gets underway! We have started works on reedbed restoration at Galava in Ambleside. This is just one site where reedbed creation will be taking place, with support from landowners National Trust. Our contractor has been on site, installing a fence around what will be the new reedbed site on the shore of Lake Windermere. Fencing is erected to keep out wildfowl and livestock from the area. Reedbeds have declined by 90% in recent years,…

Every year ‘Balsam Bashes’ are organised by volunteers and members of the Kent Catchment Partnership. Himalayan Balsam (HB) is a fast growing invasive non-native species that can be found in many areas around the country. HB specifically loves to grow around rivers and lakes and can spread rapidly choking out native species that can then cause erosion and habitat loss. One positive thing about Balsam, unlike other invasive species, is that it can be pulled out during certain months of…