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’ of biosecurity cleaning station equipment.
- It is often underestimated the amount of time and effort it can be to arrange biosecurity measures, so it is important for all involved that it is enforced to ensure event/site effectiveness.
CFINNS is a a collaborative project currently funded by the Environment Agency, Natural England and DEFRA.
It is a pilot for a county-wide, multi-catchment project for freshwater and riparian invasive non-native species (INNS). The Initiative’s vision is to achieve a sustainable county-wide management framework that will prevent the introduction of, or detect, control and/or eradicate specified INNS throughout Cumbria.
For more information about invasive non-native species, please visit the website, specifically designed for all things invasive: http://cfinns.scrt.co.uk/