It has already been a busy start to the year for Westcountry Rivers Trust.
We've got some exciting updates for you to read in this month's issue including an update on the PRK Weevils,avisit from Luke Pollard MP, and a call out for our podcast.
Sea swimming MP visits the PRK project.
Plymouth’s water loving MP Luke Pollard joined our CEO and the PRK team on Friday, 28 January, to see how the charity is improving the health of the city’s streams.
As you might remember, back in August of last year the Plymouth River Keepers team released North American Weevils into Budshead Pond to help tackle the invasive Water Fern (Azolla filiculoides).
Our fisheries scientific officer Sam Baycock shares outcomes from our ongoing Roadford Mitigation Project.
Increasing the number of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts leaving the Tamar catchment is the focus of our Roadford Dam mitigation work.
Since the construction of the dam (completed in 1989) on the River Wolf; a tributary of the Tamar catchment, the Roadford Lake Fisheries Liaison Committee (RLFLC) has agreed on a number of dynamic mitigation responses such as hatchery stocking and estuary net buy-outs.
In addition to the RLFLC interventions, Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) is working with the Tamar and Tributaries Fisheries Association, South West Water and the Environment Agency on a robust action plan to provide a fresh angle on the restoration, protection and management of the Tamar catchment.
This not only responds to the ongoing mitigation of Roadford Dam, but diminishes new challenges in the catchment such as agricultural pressure and habitat suitability.
Our charity is supporting demands for the Government to take urgent action following release of a damning water quality report on the 13 January.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s Water Quality in Rivers review identifies a raft of failings across the public and private sectors regarding the ineffectual protection of rivers in England.
The monitoring team at Westcountry Rivers Trust have been busy collecting data on the condition of the streams in the PRK area using a Sonde. You can see more about the data that has been collected here:
Confluence Podcast
We aim to bring you inspiring, intriguing and informative river stories from a diverse group of people with one thing in common - they all love our Westcountry rivers.
We'd love you to share your passion for our freshwater environments too.
Email josie@wrt.org.uk if you have a river tale to tell.
It's a new year but our rivers still need your help. Why not help protect them by becoming one of our valuable Westcountry CSI volunteers and carry out water monitoring on a river near you.
