Week 1: I started my new role as a Project Officer for SCRT just over two weeks ago and I have learnt a lot since. On my first day, I had a few introductory meetings to learn the basic protocols of the trust alongside my first look at my probation plan, which outlines my targets for the next three months. This day also gave me a nice opportunity to meet the rest of the team as everyone came in and…
January 2020- Blog by Roxanne Diaz, World Fish Migration Foundation Communications Manager © Jeremy Monroe Migratory fishes are a strong, remarkable group of species. There are more than 1,100 freshwater species which migrate a distance of more than 100 km; some swim over 11,000 km over the course of their lifetimes. They navigate using the currents, magnetic fields, and with their sense of taste and smell. Migratory fish are a crucial link in the food chain and play an important role…
Hi again, I am now over three months into the role! Since my last blog, I have been busy, like everyone else in the Trust! I attended the Barrow Community Rivers Day, hosted by SCRT, Barrow Community Kitchen and Tesco Metro. We carried out a litter pick in the morning, with local people and businesses coming to support the day and tidy up next to the river. Even the local paper came to support the clean, which was great publicity…
Hi again everyone. I wanted to give you all an update on how I am getting on and what I have been working on in my second month with SCRT. Since my last blog, I have been relatively office based. Yet, this has provided me with some new and exciting opportunities by expanding my knowledge of ongoing projects to collating important information for policy changes. I have been busy marketing the annual STONE skimming competition, as well as preparing equipment…
Hello, My time undertaking work experience with the South Cumbria Rivers Trust has sadly come to an end. Since my last blog I have been busy out of the office, with the rivers and becks finally returning to their ‘normal’ levels following the recent drought we have managed to undertake our first and probably only electrofishing of the year. The river Bela was the chosen location and although the results were not what we were after, a bad result can…
Hi everyone, I have been here just over a month now and I thought it would be a great opportunity to update you a bit on what has been going on. Firstly, I think I am getting to understand how everyone takes their tea, a very important thing to get right in this office as I am sure you all understand how important a good cup of tea is! My time has been split between being in the office preparing…
A big hello to you all, I’m Rachael and I have just started with South Cumbria Rivers Trust. I have been engaged by SCRT as a Project Support Officer who also deals with the administration and publicity of the trust. I do not have a background in Ecology, Geo-morphology or even Geo-hydrology but I do have an olgy..oh yes.. Psychology. It may prove a useful tool as I navigate myself around this new role! I am well under way with…
Hello everyone, I’m Amy and I am a new regular volunteer undertaking work experience over the summer months before returning to Aberystwyth University to complete my Countryside Management degree. I have only been here a few days but I thought it would be nice to update you all on what I’ve been doing. After briefly meeting the team last Monday I was taken out to assist with the piezometer sampling. This strange looking piece of equipment measures the dissolved oxygen…
Hi everyone! I’m 6 weeks in now so it’s time for my third blog post. At the moment a large amount of my time is being spent on two projects. These are the project in the Winster and Gilpin catchment and the Freshwater Pearl Mussel project, so they will be the focus of this blog post. The Winster and Gilpin project is a 3-4 year habitat improvement project with the aim to identify and investigate issues in the catchments, and…
Another two weeks have passed and that is my first month at South Cumbria Rivers Trust completed already! How time flies! Following a great Easter weekend spent exploring the Lake District it was back to work on Tuesday. First item on the agenda was a site visit with Mike Sturt to assess an on-line Mill pond near Cartmel that has become excessively silted. The pond is currently a fishery and was created many years ago by damming the Burn’s Beck/Hill Mill…