// BLOG
Working with Partners
May 18, 2010
I’m sorry that my Monday blog is now becoming Tuesday or Wednesday but it’s a bit hec-tic around here. I’m hoping thought that the appointment of a volunteer catchment GIS officer will take some pressure off. For those not in the know, GIS is Geographical Information System. It is very much the “in” thing in Conservation these days. Some will ask how useful it is, but I can promise you it’s essential, for planning, funding and prioritising projects. The new body is Charlie Poates, and is here for 3 – 5 months. He is particularly looking at mapping out the locations of barriers, their impacts, what we need to do to them, and how much it’s going to cost. This will help us to prioritise where to target work and have a folder with all the details for a project bid ready to go.
But back to last week! Monday I was out with Burnley college students, looking at invertebrate monitoring and how to do walk over surveys. We hope to then utilise the students to add to our knowledge of the catchment, which Charlie can then put on our “problems” map! In the afternoon our Passport scheme booklets finally arrived so I dropped them into Vareys in Clitheroe, and sent out copies to those who had bought vouchers. I hope to see some results from peoples fishing in the very near future, although I suspect we need some rain first!
Tuesday I met Mark Rudd to look at our new proposal for easing passage at Hodder place gauging weir, we had a good morning and have got a new plan that we are costing up as we speak! In the afternoon I checked on the progress of the Weir removal near Rimmington and needless to say Baileys were nearly done. I then headed to Horton-in-Ribblesdale to talk with Ian Fleming the River keeper for Manchester Anglers Association and Kyle Young from the EA about a research program we’re doing up there this year, looking at why Gayle and Cam beck are failing good ecological status. We have a good idea, but need some evidence to back it up for when we apply for project funding.
Wednesday Janet Lord came in to go over our new Data base for storing all our fisheries data. If you’ve seen my report you’ll know we hold a lot of data that takes us an age to input, and on top of that is not stored in a user friendly way. With the knew data base this should all change. It will also hopefully be available to other rivers trusts to make use of if they please.
Thursday we met with Sopiha from the “vinspired” program, which is a scheme designed to allow young volunteers to get involved in various work experience through volunteering. Hopefully this will bolster our numbers of tree planters, and invertebrate samplers! In the afternoon it was contract writing for Barrowford 3. One of our trustees Dom came in to give his expertise which was most welcome as I felt a little overwhelmed!
Friday I visited our project site on Swanside to see how the fish easement works were going, and again Bailey’s were nearly finished! It looked good and only requires a small amount of work now to finish off. In the afternoon I was down at The Barn in Bamber Bridge for a workshop on Water Bodies and Watercourses, hosted by the Wildlife trust. There were representatives from many different conservation organisations, and the main thrust was to find out what organisations where doing where for Biodiversity action plan species (BAP species). The amazing thing for all attendees was how much the rivers trust movement was doing. I took a long list of not only what we were doing, but what the rivers trusts in the Northwest as a whole were doing. Many good contacts were made, and the BAP species process now might start to help the rivers trusts to continue there work, but also vice versa we may be able to help many of our partners to deliver theirs. And this is what it’s all about, working together for the greater cause not working off on our own ignoring what others are doing, especially when it may be the same thing or complimentary to our work.
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!
Packing in a varied week
May 5, 2010
It was a long week last week, well at least it felt that way! Having been down south for a week, I was eager on Sunday to see what progress was made at Padiham, so after lunch I headed over to Padiham. I was thoroughly pleased to see that nearly all work to the weir had been completed! The three downstream bed check weirs were in place (with some minor works to be done), the rocks in between to form rock ramps were in place, and the height of the weir had been reduced to complete the final major stage of work! Fish are now able to migrate through Padiham weir and up to Pendle Water! I will get some photos on the project page of the website soon. So happy was I that I decided to get a couple of hours fishing in.
Monday Was back to normal, Philip was away so I got stuck into catching up on the correspondence from the previous week. It wasn’t to bad though as the joys (or horrors) of modern technology meant I was able to do much of the emailing required via phone while I was away. Once that was sorted I had to design an interpretation panel for one of our habitat schemes, then more paperwork for Barrowford 3 fish pass, but to round off the day Stephen and I went and walked over Stock beck were we are planning some substrate addition to try and aid spawning and the recovery of this surprisingly important beck.
Tuesday first thing we went out with the EA to do a White Claw crayfish survey at a project site. This was to make sure that if present we carried out a rescue before works commenced. However, sadly none were present. In the afternoon a meeting to discuss the way forward with easing fish passage on the Hodder flow gauging weir. It was a good meeting and we now feel there is a way ahead.
Wednesday I went into Ribble Valley Borough Council to meet with the planning department to find out more about the planning process where rivers and streams are likely to be impacted. This was a really good session and I hope that positive things will come to pass. The afternoon was more Barrowford 3 paperwork! Plus a visit to Mearley Brook to put up the last signs for the passport scheme.
Thursday I met David Jackson up on Colne water to walk the bottom section of the beck and look at the pollution concerns David had. Unfortunately he was spot on and we found several problems, which the EA are now tackling. In the afternoon was more paper work for Barrowford 3, and that continued into Friday. Why so much paperwork? Well we need:
- Permission from the owners
- Planning permission
- Land Drainage consent
- Fish pass group approval
- Preparation of Tender documents
So you can see that each of these are fairly well involved!
Friday We got the last of the Passport Scheme boxes up, but unfortunately the vouchers and booklets didn’t come in time for the opening of our season. I was really gutted especially when we had several enquiries about this over the weekend, but I now have the vouchers and will soon get the booklets so soon people can start to explore some of these wonderful small wild trout streams.
Two weeks rolled into one!
April 26, 2010
I must apologise to those who kept checking online to see if I had put a post up last week, but I was stuck in a “special” hotel in Cornwall on a training course about reducing diffuse pollution from farms. But before I get carried away on that topic I’ll fill you in on the week starting the 12th!
Monday was the usual, Philip came in to go through stuff lots of correspondence, and I finally finished off my report on our electrofishing of Chipping brook for the Hodder Consultative. It was interesting to look at the data on a map and considering the various outcomes that we could derive.
Tuesday I had to take the dog in for her booster shot first thing (and got the great news that she has cysts on her ovaries!). When finally on the office I arranged a Crayfish survey (which I’m doing tomorrow!), got our RFCA report done, and then took Steve Powell out to look at some of our projects on the go this year. We stopped at Padiham, Montford, Barrowford and Swanside. Montford was interesting as we saw anglers fishing the run created by the weir removal, from the right bank, something that couldn’t be done before!
Wednesday I had a meeting with the Dan Atkinson from the EA (now of the River Hodder DVD Fame!) and Mike Horner to discuss our River fly partnership and the future plans. Mike is going to get involved this will help in allowing us to continue to expand the scheme. It was a really positive meeting with Dan Confirming that he had secured some funding for us for this year training events!
Thursday I prepared a presentation for the next day, and then nipped up to empress to get a quote. In the afternoon I took out our fencer to look at a couple of jobs. And then in the evening, it was the Hugh Falkus memorial. What a great night, to see so many anglers come together for a beer, a supper and to look at the work that is going on to improve the river, and obviously to have a gander at the tackle, fly tying and paintings also on offer!
Friday I was up at the AONB offices at Dunsop, who were hosting a training day for Farm Environment Planners. These are the guys who write the applications for agri-environment schemes. A year ago we had mentioned to Natural England and the AONB staff that we felt Agri-environment schemes were missing out opportunities to help the river. So they asked me to come along and give a presentation. It was great, I really was able to hammer home the importance of small streams and looking after them and how easy it was for them to incorporate it into a scheme. Although there was some debate about fences not being good for Landscape value!
Last week…. where to start. It was an intense week, certainly not a Jolly, although I managed to sneak in three 2 hour fishing sessions on the West Country Rivers Trust passport scheme, and a few pints! The scheme is called Pinpoint, it is a scheme to provide rivers trusts with tools to visit farms and make suggestions on how they can reduce their cost of operating, and at the same time help the environment. It is confidential, free and it may save them a penny or two!! For example, separating roof water by repairing guttering could cost £200 but save them £2000 on spreading costs! And less spreading means less slurry/dirty water and less compaction of soil – in turn helping the rivers!
A true win win. A great week, and the chance to meet up with some colleagues from all over the country and exchange ideas and adivce had got me re-energised and enthused – feeling like I can take on the world…well maybe just the Ribble Catchment.
A short but packed week
April 12, 2010
Well altough I had only just recovered from a touch of man flu and had been off most of the previous week a shortened week seemed just what I needed. But the work load didn’t seem to care whether I was in four or five days!
Tuesday I did a walk over survey of barriers to migration on Colne Water from just below Colne to Laneshaw bridge. The result was that our records of artificial (complete) barriers to migration now tops a 100. Colne water has some fantastic habitat for all species from trout to dipper and the certainly Kingfisher that seemed to be keeping an eye on us all day. However barriers to migration cause more than just problems to fish, but reduce “eco system function” – which is a wider concept, gravel is held behind weirs that should be down stream being spawned on by fish, used by inverts for cover and dippers to hunt on. Barriers also increase the kinetic energy of water, the increased energy results in increased levels of erosion, not just bankside but river bed reducing habitat and increasing diffuse pollution, and they also cause changes in temperature! That is just a few of the problems barriers create.
Wednesday I plotted out the barriers, started work on some more reports and had a short meeting with Philip, a true office based day. I also had to prepare some bits for Thursday as we were hosting a monitoring workshop for Rivers trusts across the UK.
The turn out for the workshop was a little less than we had hoped but we had some key figures there and plenty of correspondence from those who were not. We discussed everything from techniques of monitoring we employ and would recommend to new trusts, to new innovative techniques we could employ to boost our knowledge of the river. It was a useful day and many things that were discussed will pave the way forward for more than just those who attended.
Friday I took Catherine our new admin officer around 3 project sites so that she had an idea of what we were doing and where. Thank fully the weather was kind and it made for a nice morning out. We then got back into the office to sort out some more funding paper work and also to look for some more! I then got a call from a prospective volunteer to say he was concerned about the lack of fish he had seen in the hyndburn, some will say this is nothing to be concerned about, but they would be wrong! Last year we found salmon fry, trout fry, eels, bullhead and stoneloach in the Hyndburn – all be it in number lower than we would like – but they were there! I decided to call into Padiham weir and then pop over to the Hyndburn. Padiham is progressing, slower than I would like but then I’m pretty darn impatient! I noticed some discolouration in a near by beck, and after a little look I called it in to the EA hot line (0800 807060) and reported the incident, there were no dead fish and inverts seemed fine, but it should not have been how it was and even if the source can’t be found it is key to report this so people can investigate. The trip to the Hyndburn was both positive and negative as we managed to spot a feeding fish, but also I was shown a tributary that was as dead as they come. I mean really dead, no worms, leeches midges nothing. The EA are looking at the problems as best they can but it’s going to be a lengthy process to fix, as the tributary drains a large urban area, it will be up to people to make sure they aren’t polluting to sort this completely, and that includes washing your car on the street so the soap ends up in the surface water, to pouring oil down drains. At some point we need to take responsibility on the small and large level to stop polluting rather than rely on the EA to stop offenders.
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