Written By: Chris West
On Date: 16/10/2018
A warm welcome to Jonny & Clair We are delighted to welcome Jonny Kidd and Clair Payne to our team. Jonny steps in
to replace Rosie as the Ellenwise Project Officer delivering this
partnership project to sustainably reduce sources of phosphate, in order to improve waterbodies and bathing waters. Prior to joining us Jonny undertook a PhD at Newcastle University
looking into the impacts of nutrient fertilisation on grassland and arable ecosystem properties. Jonny has a strong grounding in
agriculture having grown up on a Cumbrian dairy farm
and has worked on a hill
farm in the North Pennines.
Clair is our most
recent recruit
who joins us to
deliver our new
natural flood
management
project in the
Glendermackin catchment of the Derwent,
which will deliver multiple benefit projects
across the catchment to ‘slow the flow’
of water running through the catchment
and improve water quality and biodiversity.
Clair has previously worked as a ranger for
the National Trust in the South Lakes and
volunteered for The Conservation Volunteers
(TCV) in Leeds. She has a degree in Physical
Geography from Newcastle University and is
keen to use her geomorphology background in
this new and exciting role.
A fond farewell
to Les
One of our long-standing trustees, Leslie
Webb, has stood down after a number of years
supporting the trust to allow himself more
time to pursue other interests. We would
like to thank Leslie for
all his hard work and
dedication to the trust
during his time on the
board of trustees and
wish him well for the
future.
Born survivors
We are really pleased to
see juvenile mussels having
survived their first winter at
our top secret reintroduction
site. These juvenile mussels
were released last summer
after being reared in captivity
by the Freshwater Biological
Association. Surviving the first
winter was always going to be their toughest
test. We shall continue to monitor the
juveniles over the coming months as we learn
more about how these mussels are adapting to
their new home.
Flimby
Natural Flood
Management Project
Over the summer we have been working on a
partnership project to address the flood risk
in Flimby and have been visiting landowners to
draw up natural flood management plans for
the catchments upstream of Flimby. We are
pleased that there are a number of landowners
happy to allow a range of work on their land
including kested hedgerows, leaky barriers and
water storage areas, which we hope to start
delivering over the coming year. These features
will all contribute to ‘slowing the flow’ of
water downstream, improve and also enhance
the area for wildlife and have water quality
benefits.
Leaky dams
at Dovenby
This summer we
have taken measures
to reduce flood risk to
Dovenby village whilst
improving water quality
and habitat. A series of six leaky barriers
upstream of the village will hold back water
during high flows, bankside fencing will slow
runoff and improve water quality, and timber
barriers will slow surface runoff through the
village. We are grateful to Cumbria Community
Foundation, Derwent River Corridors Group
and the landowner for making this possible.
AUTUMN 2018 ISSUE
The newsletter of West Cumbria Rivers Trust
West Cumbria Rivers Trust
@WestCumbriaRT
Drought in Cumbria
There have been a number of impacts to
our aquatic environments due to the dry
weather this summer. A number of our
watercourses dried up completely, causing
direct fish kills, but also water temperatures
have been higher than average which causes
fish to become stressed and impacts on
their long term health. For example, in July,
temperatures of the main rivers of the
Derwent were on average 19°C compared
to around 14°C in a ‘usual’ year. At 22°C
temperatures become lethal for salmon and
trout. Drought is a natural occurrence, but
like flooding, it is exacerbated by human
activity in our catchments. Many of the
watercourses that have been more severely
impacted are those which are modified,
they have usually been straightened and
are ‘perched’ above the low point in the
floodplains; not only are these modified
becks at greater risk of drying up in droughts,
they also speed up the flow of water (and
gravels) at times of flood, causing greater
flood impacts for people and properties.
We are working with and encouraging
landowners to think about restoring becks
to a more resilient and natural state, which
has win win benefits for people and wildlife.
Trees also help keep rivers cool, so we
are encouraging landowners to plant and
manage trees to retain dappled shade
along watercourses which creates the ideal
conditions for fish and other wildlife.
Weir’s it gone?!
In June and July, after years in the making, we removed the former
Ennerdale Mill Weir from the River Ehen at Egremont, opening up
the river to fish migration and improving the long-term prospects
for freshwater mussels in the process. The weir has been crumbling
for years - it was only a matter of time before it failed completely -
and was a barrier to both upstream and downstream migration of
fish, including Atlantic Salmon. This barrier is now gone, so fish have
a much easier time swimming upstream to lay eggs, this also benefits
mussels, who rely on the salmon as part of their life-cycle (during
their larval stage, mussels live inside salmon gills).
After eight weeks, working with contractor Ebsford Environmental,
we de-mobilised from site, leaving behind a much more natural river,
healthier habitat for fish and other species, and no more risk of
the weir collapsing. We were extremely lucky with the weather - it
was dry almost every single day of the construction phase, and that
meant the low water levels assisted our progress. In fact, the day we
completed the project was the start of the recent wet weather.
We’ll be monitoring the site over the winter, and are really excited
to watch the upcoming salmon migration this autumn.
This project is part of the Cumbria River Restoration Strategy, partfunded
by the Environment Agency & Natural England, with special
contributions from James Fisher Nuclear (the weir owner) and the
European Maritime Fisheries Fund.
Habitat improvement work
on River Waver
Following on from the walkover surveys conducted on the Waver and Wampool catchments,
work is well underway at one particular site, to try and improve the habitat and reduce
diffuse water pollution. This spring over 1200m of riparian fencing was erected at a farm
upstream of Waverton. The fencing will keep livestock out of the river, allow vegetation to
grow and thus stabilise the banks and reduce the amount of erosion occurring and sediment
entering the River. Watch this space for more news as this project unfolds.
BEFORE AFTER
The packaging from pretty much every
chocolate bar I have ever eaten, is still out
there somewhere on the planet. This fact
was brought home to me by a photo of a
Marathon bar wrapper with a Best Before
date in the 80s, picked up on a beach-clean
in Allonby earlier this year (For all those
youngsters out there, Snickers used to be
called Marathons, oh it makes me feel so old!).
My hero David Attenborough has given a huge
boost to the movement of people already
thinking about plastic. How we can reduce
it, how we can stop it polluting our oceans,
and how we increase knowledge about its
effects on the environment. I have been much
more aware of single-use plastic in my own
daily life, and am even more likely to refuse or
challenge it, because of the feeling of solidarity
this recent publicity has given me.
Rivers are obviously one of the main routes
for plastic reaching the sea, and West Cumbria
Rivers Trust, with the help of volunteers, are
doing their best to intercept it before it gets
there. We run an annual litter pick on the
River Derwent, just outside Keswick, which
involves kayakers as well as more traditional
terrestrial volunteers, and we hold regular
riverside litter-picks elsewhere. In April this
year, on a 200m stretch of the River Ehen in
Egremont we collected 10 bags of rubbish
with 80 plastic bottles and around 30 plastic
coffee cup lids, in just two hours! We are
also involved in beach cleans along the west
Cumbrian coast.
We would love you to take action for your
rivers too. Here are some things you could do:
• Join a community litter pick (keep an eye
on our website for events in your area)
• Pick up litter you find when you are
walking and dispose of it responsibly.
Even if you pick up a few things each day,
it all helps
• If you know of a river or beach with
public access that has a particular
problem then please let us know and we
will try and organise a litter pick.
There are lots of initiatives
around Cumbria that you
can get involved in to help
reduce the impact of plastic
on the environment. Here
are a few:
• Plastic Free Cumbria have a website
with a directory of green local
businesses, and a Facebook page for
discussion and ideas around reducing
waste
• Love My Beach organise and publicise
lots of litter picks on our coastline, and
have resources for schools on their
website
• Surfers Against Sewage campaign
on plastics as well as organising beach
litterpicks. They also have resources for
schools on their website
• Cumbria Action for Sustainability have
lots of campaigns, events, and ideas on
sustainable living.
Adopt a Beck, Kirk beck & Black beck project update
There’s exciting stuff going on on the Nugen
funded Adopt-a-Beck project on Kirk/Black
Beck, a tributary of the River Ehen close to
the coast. Our farm projects have been going
from strength to strength when it comes to
improved livestock management, saving soils
and reducing muck getting into our becks.
We’ve fenced off 860 metres of beck; created
interventions on farm tracks including laying
a concrete cross drain and additional track
diverts to take dirty water away from the beck,
and we’ve helped stabilise riverbanks with a
further 30 metres of willow spiling and brash
bundles.
With handson
help from
our partners
Egremont
Anglers and the
Environment
Agency, we
completed
electrofishing at
14 sites on Kirk
and Black becks
over the summer.
The data collected
includes fish species,
size and number,
and details about
river habitat which
is crucial to help
better understand fish
populations while also
helping us assess the
health of the river and possible pressures.
Our tree planting volunteers may have been
small in number but they were HUGE on
enthusiasm and
energy! Over last
winter we planted
a further 300
mixed trees along
the riverbank. Tree
tube maintenance
helps ensure
young saplings
grow well and
are not crowded
out by grass or
other vegetation, while planting trees helps to
stabilise riverbanks and prevent erosion.
The talk was seriously dirty at our “Making
the Most of your Muck and Slurry” workshop
in January! With over 17 farmers attending
we had a packed programme delivered by
the Agriculture & Horticulture Development
Board (AHDB) and Catchment Sensitive
Farming. Talks included: techniques for cost
effective application, Nutrient Management
Plans, Compliance with Regulations and
Countryside Stewardship Grants. Big thanks
to Terry Dixon who hosted the event and of
course the local farmers who joined us to
find out more and to share their knowledge
and experience.
If you’d like to find out more and get
involved in “Adopt a Beck, Kirk beck &
Black beck” project, Project Officer Karin
would love to hear from you. Email: karin@
westcumbriariverst
The latest news from West Cumbria Rivers Trust