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…
On Wednesday 24th January, we ran a Discovering Priority Habitats: Naturalness training course at Brathay Hall. Organised through the Windermere Community Partnership, this free course was available to all. Josie from the Freshwater Biological Association ran the training, in partnership with the Natural Capital and Ecosystems Assessment Programme (NCEA) and Natural England. The programme aims to train citizen scientists to head out and survey their local becks, streams, rivers and lakes. The intention is to gather data for the Priority…
We say goodbye to the second year of the LIFE R4Ever Kent Project, with our project officer providing a breakdown of works completed in 2023. The LIFE R4Ever Kent Project started at the end of 2021, with the aim to Restore and Revive the River Kent Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This will allow species and habitats to Recover, making the designated features more Resilient to environmental pressures. The River Kent SAC has a designation for its Ranunculion habitat, Freshwater pearl mussel,…
For World Soils Day, we thought we’d do a news piece about soils of course! Some background Soils are vitally important for all life on the planet. That’s due to their role in providing both a substrate AND the water, nutrients, and minerals plants need to grow. They also play important roles in carbon storage, as habitat for up to one-quarter of global species and in the water cycle! Crikey, they work hard for us… Soils are often the first…
Olly attended the Windermere Science Evening on the 15th November hosted by Lancaster University. The evening featured presentations from the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA), The UK Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH), Environment Agency (EA) and Lancaster University. Evening Summary Dr Lynsey Harper (FBA) introduced Windermere and its history, detailing the timeline of human impacts on the lake through land management, sewage inputs and climate change. This has led to multiple interacting pressures on the lake, including nutrient inputs, bacterial…
The Tales from the Deep event is coming up this Thursday! The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology will be giving a talk explaining how and why our iconic lakes are changing. Starting at 6pm in the Percival Lecture Theatre, Ambleside campus, University of Cumbria. See event HERE. This is going to be a really insightful lecture, based on long term monitoring data started in the 1940’s! Learn about Lake Windermere, Esthwaite Water and Blelham Tarn like never before. Species…
The Duddon Rivers Association newsletter is now available. Grab yourself a cuppa and download the new Duddon Dispatches! DUDDON DISPATCHES AVAILABLE HERE Read all about the recent events happenings in the Duddon Valley, along with findings from recent monitoring and the new landscape recovery scheme helping to do good things in Duddon catchment. You can also find out about the day-to-day activities happening in the valley by following the Duddon Rivers Association on Instagram.
The Sir John Fisher Foundation have recently allocated £1500 to SCRT towards the Wild About Rivers education project. Wild About Rivers is an education programme run by SCRT and this funding will help us target some schools in Barrow. It will support classroom visits and river-based visits so that children can learn more about river habitats and wildlife and get the opportunity to explore the river themselves. Enabling children to access green and blue spaces boosts mental wellbeing, academic performance…