Seeing the projects getting done
May 10, 2010
After a nice bank holiday weekend trying to get my batteries recharged a short week was a nice easing back into the thick of things. To ease into the week a friend and I went for a few casts on the Calder on Monday. Catching 8 fish up to 1/2 a pound might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it. What was evident though was the delayed spring, a cold north easterly wind and lack of sun certainly put a chill up my back.
Tuesday I went down to a presentation hosted by the Trent Rivers Trust, Natural England, and Catchment Sensitive Farming. The Presentation was about undertaking large scale invertebrate sampling to identify sources of pollution. Why I was so keen on attending is to see the outcomes of their project, and whether with the volunteer scheme we are running we can hope to achieve the same. The outcomes showed that by undertaking 100 plus kick samples twice a year they can trace back organic pollution events relatively easily, however the analysis of their samples were to species level, something that our scheme doesn’t do, but from what was discussed I am confident our scheme will allow us to do this, however we need more sites to be covered and that means more volunteers!!! Which brings me onto Wednesday nicely! We have now organised the date of our next training day for the invertebrate sampling course. The 12th of June. The course is a day long and if you are interested please email Catherine in the office – whose address is : admin@ribbletrust.com. Volunteering for this does require some commitment, one day a month or at most every other month we need volunteers to go out and do a kick sample at a given site (agreed by us and the volunteer), then to send the results into us. All equipment and training is provided free by us, and if you’re an angler you’ll learn a lot about the flies you’re trying to imitate when trout fishing, and if you’re not an angler you will be amazed by the wildlife that is found below water!
Also on Wednesday I had a meeting with Philip which lasted longer than usual as we had two weeks to catch up on, and a lot to discuss. I also had correspondence to catch up on including getting our passport scheme sorted. It was meant to start last Saturday but after a problem with the printers the beat booklets and vouchers only arrived today. So now I can say that the scheme is fully available with tickets available in Varey’s outdoor world in Clitheroe, and online (see our home page!). At the moment the lack of water will make fishing hard, but I plan on going out this week to see if I can winkle a fish or two out!
Thursday I got to writing a report that was long over due on Juvenile salmonid populations above and below Settle. I also liaised with the borough council on a couple of schemes that are currently in the pipeline for Clitheroe. I also had to get on top of the planning permission application for Barrowford 3.
Friday I went over to see the work done to Barrowford 2 which looks brilliant (from a fish perspective but will weather in quickly), now fish can get all the way to the heritage centre in Barrowford on Pendle Water and hopefully in the not to distant future fish will get all the way to Roughlee! This will benefit King Fishers (which I saw on Friday), Otters and a host of other fish dependant species! To make sure of this I headed to Padiham weir – or should I say the site that was previously Padiham weir! The weir has been reduced in height and a rock ramp installed. Work in river is nearly complete and the hope is all in channel work will be done by this Friday. But most importantly it is now passable to “All Species – of all ages – at all water levels!”
In the afternoon Catherine and I rushed to finish the Planning application for Barrowford 3 and we completed it just in time to get it in the post!
Saturday I went with a volunteer to Barrowford 3, the brave volunteer donned a wet suit and a snorkel mask to have a look at the weir below water level. The water felt freezing to me – and I only got my hands and feet wet – so god only knows what it was like under the water! This week we hope to see two more projects started and completed so the improvements are coming thick and fast at the moment!
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