Back into the swing of things
April 6, 2009
Well the first week out of the way it was back to business as usual. Even our internet in the office was back up and running!! The current water levels restricted our activities, so more time was spent in the office than usual. I’ve been working on an overhaul of the trusts website to try and make it both more interactive and informative. This takes a lot more time than most people think, it’s certainly not just a case of whipping something together.
Tuesday we had a site meeting with Mark Rudd the new EA officer for the Hodder. We went down to the Langden to look at a potential new site for a spawning channel, which fingers crossed will go ahead. We also met the contractors for United utilities who are doing pipe protection work near the old Langden channel that the river filled in. The bonus here is that their work may resolve the problem with that spawning channel, making it successful which would be a fantastic result.
Wednesday was a fantastic day. Delivering the Eggs for trout in the classroom. This is such a rewarding scheme, the kids are so excited and keen to learn about fish and the environment that we were deluged with questions. The schools we visited were; Dunsop, Longridge, Chipping, St. Leonards (Padiham) and Pendle (Clitheroe). There was a little fine tuning and setting up to be done, but fingers crossed in a fortnight the schools will see a hundred alevins.
A brief visit to Padiham weir resulted in no siting of salmon for our 5th visit on perfect water, has the pump priming stocking that took place finished it’s course with the last of the fish returning last year?
Thursday was another day working on the website, and printing out my report for the 2008 electro fishing and putting it into binders. If you would like a copy please pop in or ring the office.
Friday was an exciting day as Lord Smith the Chair of the EA visited the catchment to talk about the abstraction on the Whitendale and Brennand. After what seems to have been a positive meeting in the morning a brief site visit to look at the rivers occurred. Both Salmon and Sea trout were seen giving much excitement to our visitors.
After the visit I dropped to the spawning channels on the Dunsop, where a large amount of cutting has taken place, if only there was more space for more schemes! There was a small salmon sitting in the top channel, and a small sea trout in the bottom channel. It is so good to see how effective these have been
First post
April 6, 2009
This is the first post of what I hope to make at least a weekly blog. This will allow trust members and those interested in the Ribble Catchment, including the Rivers Hodder and Calder, as well as all of their tributaries, to keep up with what is involved in my job, and what I am finding and working on.
The 5th of January was my first day back after the xmas break. We had a brief meeting to remind ourselves of projects and directions, now that we are reinvigorated and raring to go for another year. Then as part of building up a picture of the volume and type of blockages on the Catchment I visited the River Hyndburn, from Rishton Down. The river was not very inviting and reflected the poor invertebrate scores our volunteer monitoring has recorded to date. I visited photographed and plotted another weir onto our data base. Which is growing everyday, I try to see this as positive build up of info rather than a depressing list of problems.
I managed to complete my draft report for 2008′s Fisheries Surveys, and following a few ammendments I hope to get this out to members, partners, and interested parties. A site visit to Park Brook followed, and the identification of a tributary that seems to be a major polluter on what is a significantly sized tributary.
I had long meeting with Richard McIlwain to talk about targetted issues on tributaries and possible projects. This was a really positive meeting, and has helped to spur me on and give me confidence to get things done.
Thursday I set up my new microscope and following a visit to the off stream spawning channels on the Dunsop we recovered some scales from 4 kelts found. We also counted 12 live fish in various pools on the Dunsop and Knowlmere Stretch. None of the fish seen (live or dead) were adipose clipped, but we continue to keep our eyes out. Back at the office we had a surprise visit from Andy Pritchard who is heading up the Trout in the Town Project on the Colne, which was good to catch up and hear how he’s getting on.
The last day of the week allowed me to plot out the results from 2008 fisheries surveys onto maps. This really helps to visualise and demonstrate the scale of the work involved in protecting and improving the Ribble catchment. I also managed to get a few project proposals written up and sent to the EA. Fingers crossed some of these will come off!!
Environment Agency news- Environment Agency moves to stop rivers running dry
- Woman rescued as car is swept away by floods
- Environment Agency tracks alien invaders
- Unwanted Christmas trees provide festive flood defences
- Queens green energy scheme nears completion
- Case for change: Drought to be commonplace by 2050s
- New taskforce will tackle illegal waste sites that blight communities
- Environment Agency moves to manage scarce water supplies across Eastern England
- Survey reveals people would save pets over gadgets in a flood
- Communities to see the future of their changing coast