An introduction to the big Screen

May 18, 2009

Well maybe not the real Big Screen.  Last week was a real treat for us, as we were included in the making of an industry award film for the Aggregates industry.  Our piece was a short piece showing the projects in which Hanson Cement have helped us by providing materials.  We filmed the site on Monday afternoon and then Tuesday we did three different length interviews with the fantastic Kate Humble!  We hope that once the editing is finished etc that we will be given a copy of the video that we will put up on the website.  It might be more interesting than the Jumping fish videos we have at the moment!

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On Monday morning I managed to Meet Darren Wilson the fisheries officer who covers the Calder (amongst others) on site on the River Don.  We were looking at  a site that we hope to put a fish pass on.  It is nice and straight forward as well as providing signifcantly greater access to spawning ground for Brown Trout on this sub catchment.  We have drawn up a way forward and all we need now is to raise the Cash! 

Which is what I started doing on Tuesday.  I sent off one grant application for this project and started preparing another - Fingers crossed! Once our interview with Kate was done and dusted Stephan and I headed down to Barrow Brook to look at a possible site for a Habitat Scheme.  We definitely have one, so now it’s a case of persuading the land owner to enter a scheme, and then working with them to get the best scheme possible for both parties in place.

Wednesday we had our weekly meeting with Philip, and then headed to Winkley to be look at the Smolt Trap with Mark Rudd the Fisheries Officer for the Hodder Catchment.  We were very interested and keen to hear of the results, which seemed encouraging.  However it is impossible to know how effective the Trap is, so we have no real quantitative idea of number of fish running.  We  were also disappointed to hear a 3lb rainbow had been caught in the trap.

Thursday I met Rebecca Tinsley of the EA to discuss Electro fishing locations etc for the coming season, between them and us we have a really good coverage this year.  We just have to prey for something like a normal summer, unlike last year.  In the afternoon, we met with Grant Talbot who is the new Fisheries officer for Ribchester to Nappa area on the Ribble.  It was good to meet another keen and enthusiastic person working for the good of our Catchment.  Fingers crossed we will get some nice projects on the go with him next year.

We also managed to get out and look at a potential project for next year.  It’s a redundant weir, that is impassable to fish and eels.  Last year the EA managed successfully to clean up some long term pollution on this beck, however on our visit there seemed to be the trace of a “slug” of pollution down the beck. 

And finally friday cam round, all to quickly as usual, and the weather on the day and the forecast meant I had to pull the plug on our Signal Crayfish work that was scheduled to start today.  We are hoping we might yet get on with some later in the week, but it depends on what the water levels are.  So after cancelling the work I spent the afternoon putting more work in on the website.  I hope that by the end of today you should start being able to see some videos on the site, and also there will be an update on the Trout in the Classroom scheme from Stephen.

Posted by Charles Edward Poate | Filed Under General News, Grants and project management, Restoration and Conservation Projects 

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