News

November 2018- SCRT started delivery work on a de-culverting project at Crosthwaite, Cumbria that had been worked up for several months. Funding for the project came from rod licence revenue as well as from crowdfunding, as part of the Dutch WWF dam removal campaign. South Cumbria Rivers Trust are the first to get crowdfunding for a barrier removal. The project was in two stages, working with two separate landowners to remove a significant proportion of the once current culvert. The…

BACK TO BASICS WITH BECKS TO BAY There are many different projects and partnerships that SCRT staff are working and involved in, at any one time. Becks to Bay, a group of local organisations, work together as a partnership under the national Catchment Based Approach initiative. It is something that SCRT have been a proud member of for 4 years but many people don’t know what it is or why it is so important. We want to change that. The…

Our 2018 Riverfly report is now available for you to read on our website. You can find the old reports as well as the new riverfly report here. South Cumbria Rivers Trust (SCRT) supported by a wide volunteer network, annually undertake riverfly (invertebrate) surveys as a method of monitoring water quality. The riverfly monitoring initiative is important to monitor the health of a local beck; thereby establishing a population baseline and highlighting any subsequent deterioration in water quality. It is also…

Our Conserving Coniston and Crake team has been very busy this year fulfilling the requirements of their HLF project. They have put together some of their best bits, which can be found here: http://ccc.scrt.co.uk/news/2018-a-year-in-review We will be updating our website in the New Year, so keep an eye out for upcoming events and our annual report. For now, we thank you for your continued support and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The £1.5million BIFFA funded Fresh Water Pearl Mussel project has come to completion after it began back in 2015. The project, that set out to PROTECT, SECURE and RESTORE Freshwater Pearl Mussels across England, consisted of five partner organisations, including South Cumbria Rivers Trust to work at reversing the decline of this critically endangered species across the country. Freshwater Pearl mussels rely on pristine water conditions, with a high oxygen content with numbers acting as a river health indicator. Elevated…

After nearly three years, a project at Dubbs Beck has now come to a close. In partnership with the Environment Agency, Natural England, Biffa Award and the EU LIFE IP ‘Natural Course’ project, this project aimed to re-naturalise a section of the beck, a tributary of the River Gowan, that can be found in the Kent catchment. The project focused on a straightened section with embankment, that stretched for 375 metres along the mid section of the beck. Removing the revetment allowed for…

Our Conserving Coniston and Crake team still have TWO events remaining, that you can get involved in. Fancy helping the environment? Or you want to learn something new? If that is the case, then how about trying:- COUNTING REDDS and/or TREE PLANTING For further information about both events, including directions; please use the link: https://ccc.scrt.co.uk/news/last-events-of-the-year/ Last events of the Year!

Jayne, our Catchment Planning and Delivery Officer, took some very lucky University students on a field trip last week. The University of Cumbria students, all studying marine and freshwater conservation, were whisked off to a local beck to look and talk about piezometers and dissolved oxygen. This is an important monitoring technique, when assessing juvenile sites by looking at the chemical conditions of river gravels. The students also found out about catchment management, something you can learn about by following…

Bekka, our Cumbria Freshwater Invasive Non-Native Species Officer (CFINNS) has been over to Yorkshire to lead some training on implementing bio-security at events. There were approx. eight different organisations that attended the workshop, discussing; application of bio-security, risk assessments, examples and then a site visit in the afternoon to Thurscross Reservoir for practical examples. The workshop allowed for a lot of discussion between organisations, focusing on; Training event organisers how to deliver biosecurity measures with focus on defining responsibility early. Potential ‘hubs’…

Over the last couple of months, Matt Carroll our newest project officer, has been working at Colwith to finalise works funded through the Fresh Water Pearl Mussel project. Matt has been working putting up 275m of bank side fencing. The benefits of such include; livestock exclusion and reducing sedimentation and nutrient inputs. This now brings the Colwith work to a close, after the revetment removal last year. You can read more about the revetment removal below. Colwith Revetment Removal