If you’re planning on visiting one of the UK’s hundreds of designated bathing water beaches this year you might be shocked to find a wet wipe buried in the sand next to your picnic spot. It’s unlikely that these wipes have been left here as litter; millions of wipes are discarded or wrongly flushed down the toilet each year which means some of them reach our much loved, rivers, beaches and seas after sewers are Continue Reading...

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By Kat Rowland: GIS Intern As a Geography student who loves rivers and GIS (and is doing her dissertation on both), the Rivers Trust was the perfect place for me to do a summer internship! Staying at the Slaidburn Youth Hostel, I worked in the Clitheroe office for three weeks. I immediately realised that the Trust does a lot more than simply monitor rivers; their work also covers surveying fish populations, eradicating invasive species, planting woodlands Continue Reading...

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On Saturday 22nd July, nine fantastic volunteers braved the pouring rain to help Ribble Rivers Trust in their annual battle with the Himalayan balsam growing along Wigglesworth Beck. The ‘Balsam Bash’, as it’s known, involved pulling up the Himalayan balsam, to prevent it from setting seed and spreading further along the beck and throughout the Ribble catchment. Clearing a site like this reduces the amount that will grow at the same site in future years. Continue Reading...

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The Ribble Life Together project is officially underway! Last week’s project launch event at Brockholes Nature Reserve was a huge success! The event celebrated securing £1.6 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund with a fun-filled, activity packed day which was supported by catchment partners and staff. We’ve been developing the Ribble Life Together project for the past two years in collaboration with our catchment partners. The £3.2 million project will now be delivered until 2020 Continue Reading...

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The Long Preston May Day kick started this year’s show season with family friendly fun in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales village! The Ribble Rivers Trust were attending the show for a second year in order to showcase the work we have been carrying out in the area and around the catchment.   Shows are a great way for us to spread the word about the work we do. The shows we attend are varied in theme Continue Reading...

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Sat with a year 6 group watching sand martins return to the river’s eroded bank, swooping around picking freshly hatched riverflies from the air. One girl leans to her friend to say “I could watch these all day. I’m going to come down here at the weekend.” At that moment, a huge grin spread across my face! That’s what our education programme is all about – reconnecting, and in some cases for the first time Continue Reading...

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By Lydia Ferris, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School.   I don’t really know what caused me to contact Ribble Rivers Trust for work experience but I am so glad that I did! This week has been very informative and has helped me build my knowledge of what exactly the RRT do and has shown me just how much work they have to do to help and sustain our rivers. I underwent varied tasks as the week Continue Reading...

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By Lorraine Richen-Stones After 32 years working in the NHS and with my children full grown I gathered the courage to leave seeking a second career in conservation with a passion to make a difference. As an existing tree planting volunteer with the Ribble Rivers Trust (RRT) since January 2014, Jack the Trust’s Director generously offered me a sabbatical placement to gain new skills in conservation field work. This enabled me to test whether a Continue Reading...

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By Mike Forty, Project Officer.   Restoring connectivity in rivers One of the big challenges we face in restoring freshwater ecosystems is re-connecting disjointed sections of streams which have been isolated by construction of in-stream structures. These structures can have profound effects on streams, acting as a barrier reducing, delaying, or altogether stopping fish or invertebrate movements, and disturbing geomorphological processes. This barrier effect is arguably greatest when rearing and spawning habitats of migratory fish Continue Reading...

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Watch our latest video about our radio tracking of the Ribble’s spring run!

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