Musical Offices
April 6, 2009
Well, it’s a late post for me this week as I have been moving back into our old offices. I’ve rearranged my furniture to try and give the place a new feel, and also to fit in more equipment. Today is my one year anniversary in Lancs, and I seem to have managed to acquire a lifetimes worth of equipment in this short period! Thank you to all the people who have been patient with me, as I have sought to find my feet up here in the North, and also to those who have made me feel welcome.
I’m still raring to go, and can’t wait to get our projects underway, as well as the next round of electro fishing results. We have had our back pack serviced and improved, and this weekend I visited a friend in Leeds who had picked up some new stop nets for us. These nets are a quarter of the size and weight of the originals. This will allow us to do more detailed fisheries surveys in the more inaccessible sites – further increasing the quality of our surveys and their value.
Monday of last week I put together a presentation for some post graduate students who were visiting the area from Imperial College London. The topic of the presentation was “Where the Trust fits into the management of the Catchment”. This was really useful exercise as it made me really consider how we work with our partners and how we can improve our work, and working relationships.
Tuesday was an early start to get ready for the Students, and after a bit of confusion over the location of the talk, we made a start. The feedback on the day, was that the talk was of useful and insightful, and after a few questions, we discussed the WFD, pollution, taxonomy and plenty more. We managed to form some strong links with them, and there is a chance that we may provide a summer placement for students in subsequent years.
In the afternoon, we headed over to the Calder to do a site survey and start planning a fish easement. We spoke to one of the land owners who was very keen on the idea. It was a useful day and fingers crossed we can get some funding for this. It is only a small and simple project but has significant potential to boost Brown Trout populations. It is still often over looked how important in stream migration for Brown Trout is.
Wednesday was a day where I thanked my lucky stars for being able to do my hobby and passion for a living! I spent the day undertaking a targeted invertebrate survey of the Ribble and Stainforth Beck – In glorious sunshine, being kept company by Dipper and Wag tails!! I did 7 Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) Surveys and found the water quality on this beck to be excellent, including below the Stainforth sewage works outflow.
Thursday was another day spent on the river doing a walk over survey of Bezza Brook Below a weir, which we hope too make passable to fish. The channel below the weir has suffered from the Scouring effects of having a weir. It is a perfect example of how weirs effect more than just fish migration. We hope that in the coming years by placing suitable Baffles and boulders we can re-create a near natural pool and riffle sequence, increasing spawning habitat and in-stream cover.
Friday we met with the EA Team Leaders from those teams we work closest with as Lutra House. It was a useful meeting to thrash out this years projects. We discussed benefits, consents, funding and the program. We had hope to make more use of the good weather but we had plenty of paper work to sort out, and also we packed ready for today’s move!
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