The new year and new challenges
January 24, 2011
Well I have to admit I didn’t even notice the two weeks between my last blog post and now go by. We are so busy it is just unreal (that said the length of this post might not make it seem like much is happening). So much is going on, as a result of the combination of government cuts, and trying to increasing delivery of improvement projects. Two things that are seemingly opposed, however we’re expected to achieve. I can see how but my goodness is it going to be tough.
Trying to solve this riddle has had me tyed up in office work even more than usual. The grant bid for our Urban River Enhancement Scheme, is quite time consuming, but as I right it, the project is growing and developing and I can see how well this could work on the ground – I just hope it’s a successful bid. In essence the last two weeks has seen me work on this project almost solely. I have however also had site meeting with contractors as part of the Tender process for our first project of the year. We’ve also had a good meeting with the Woodland Trust who we have now formed a strong partnership with and we hope to see this work well in the coming 12 months.
Last week was a busy week for evening meetings, with 3 out of 5 seeing me out till at least 22:30! These included our Trustees meeting that has seen one definite new appointment to the board of trustees and hopefully a second in the near future. Wednesday was the RFCA (Ribble Fisheries Consultative Association) meeting, which was well attended. And then Thursday night I had a meeting with the chair of RFCA to discuss future co operative workings of the trust and the RFCA.
Friday afternoon last week was the longest and some of the most informative although it didn’t have me singing from the roof top. It was a meeting with the EA regarding funding, projects bid for and the future. We at the trust and those who ae our partners and supporters have a lot of work to do if we hope to see our improvement projects continuing to occur, although the EA will continue to support we are going to have to contribute even more than ever.
How
Here comes 2011
January 11, 2011
Well it seems like an eternity since my last blog post, an to be honest it’s not far off…. well about a month, which at this time of year can feel like an awful long time. Getting up in the dark, getting to work in the dark and going home in the dark is not good for the sole. And although I love this job even I can become susceptible to some winter blues. But with a good long xmas break off, a couple of new years resolutions and my enthusiasm topped back up I hit the ground running in 2011!
Monday I had to trawl through the emails picking out those that I had replied to over xmas (from my phone) and those I hadn’t. Then it was a case of looking through my to do list and rearranging a few items according to deadlines. What was a little creepy was that I have alot of deadlines to get through in the next month. Grant applications, land drainage consents, claim forms, tree planting, drinking trough erection, and maybe even a planning application. But much of the work is linked to the fact that we have secured our first lump of river improvement money in 2011 and we are building a fish pass on the River Don.
Tuesday I had some reports I needed to get written (I still am to write up my fisheries survey report form last year), the results of the Gayle and Cam beck study, and the kick sampling around Clitheroe I did with the EA in 2010. This took me through till Friday but there were some incredible results, Gayle and Cam beck appear to have less than sufficient flow (per metre channel width) for juvenile salmon for 30 to 35% of the time. This is a combination of problems lack of water (I believe from land drainage) and over widened channels (from erosion due to lack of riparian vegetation). The kick sampling showed that to interventions from the EA pollution team lead to improvements in invertebrate populations and diversity, however we identified the need for some more polluti0n prevention work.
Part of Thursday but most of Friday was claim day, we had a large outstanding claim on works carried out from last year that we had to claim ASAP. The claim is in the form of “full cost recovery” which means that we have to provide time sheets for hours, and travel, and office costs, and plant costs and…. needless to say it’s hard work.
Friday we also had a meeting with the new team members of the UU Bowland estate team, new to UU but they’re not new to us, Dave Oyston and Pete Wilson whom many will know are now working in the Bowland team, and we had a get to know you session to discuss all things UU and Bowland estate. After that one of our Trustees (Dave Wilmot) popped into have a chat about how he and Catherine were progressing the Open day that we are planning (Sunday 1st of May – PUT IT IN THE DIARY!!!), and then we had the usual sit down meeting with Philip to discuss progress on projects etc.
Saturday.. yep we’ve got lots on! I had a little time set aside for working on our grant application for the projects in Burnley we would like to undertake, and Sunday My other half and I had a nice walk up the Dunsop valley. Abbie had never been up there so it was a nice walk. A footholme gauging weir the salmon were in full migration and with perfect light I got some fantastic photos put on my blog…. except I hadn’t realised that there was no memory card in the camera, what a schoolboy error….
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