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February’s been a busy one so far with so much going on…. The month began with a walk to celebrate World Wetlands Day. The catchment has some interesting wetland habitats from upland flushes to purple moor grass with rush pasture and lowland fen.  Wetlands play an important role in absorbing and storing carbon and water and are considered to be crucial to combating climate change and natural flood management.  The walk went through flushes to Beacon Tarn, onto the Beacon…

You know what they say – Time flies when you’re having fun and that’s certainly been true of October. The Clean Gravels conservation activity has been a great learning experience for the team as well as for our volunteers who got stuck into trying out the new ideas and equipment. They also contributed plenty in terms of suggestions for improving techniques, as well as having fun at pretending to be firemen! In addition to the trial, we carried out two sessions…

The final country show in the calendar for the team was the Lowick Show 1st September. It’s an early start so Mike and I set up the gazebo the afternoon before so all we had to do on the Saturday morning was to catch some freshwater minibeasts and set out the displays. So we were good to go just after 8.30am when the show officially started.    It began a little quietly but soon we became a little busier talking…

Some time was spent planning what activities we were going to do, checking regularly with the National Trust to see what they had planned so we didn’t double up and eventually came up with a plan. Posters were made and distributed and updates placed on social media and websites. It was going to be a grand day, full of fun and learning. As the day drew nearer we practised  our art and craft activities. Amy, our brilliant volunteer, painstakingly put…

Once again I, along with Amy our university student volunteer,  joined a volunteer led LDNPA guided walk around Coniston. This time the walk was led by John and Martin, the route starting from Coniston TIC, heading through Yewdale, up past Tom Gill to Tarn Hows and back via the Monk Coniston estate. 12 people attended the walk and the weather was a mix of sunshine and showers. The prolonged dry spell was really obvious as we passed almost empty becks…

After a fair bit of planning and preparation, helped by Amy our University student volunteer, Mike & I arrived bright and early to set up our stand for the Coniston Country Fair on 22nd July. It was a warm, sunny day and the show site was buzzing. Our stand was near the show ring so we had a view of what was on show. That said we were busy all day and didn’t have time to do much watching!   …

Year 7 students from John Ruskin High School spent Monday 9th July learning about freshwater invertebrates and sampling two becks that flow into Coniston Water. Prior to the day I spent time creating a PowerPoint presentation for the first session of the day as well as planning the day out with the lead teacher Mrs Mallett, looking at risk assessments and organising volunteers to help. I also designed a worksheet for the students to use on the day. Amy, who’s…

One of the conservation activities of the project concerns slate shards in the River Crake. In the 1700s and 1800s  a variety of materials were transported from Coniston to Greenodd via Coniston Water and the Crake. As well as copper, charcoal and iron, one of the commodities was slate. It was unloaded at the southern end of the lake, before being moved to Greenodd by road. There were several unloading points including a quayside approximately 50m south of Allen Tarn,…

Once again I joined volunteers from the Lake District National Park Authority, this time Jean and Stephanie, on a guided walk through Yewdale Woods. It was a warm, sunny day and we were joined by 6 adults on this short, circular walk from Coniston. Jean, Stephanie & I shared our knowledge and interests with the group and each other as we passed trees, stonewalls, becks that just about had water running in them and a lime kiln. The normally flowing…

We paid another visit to Spark Bridge and the River Crake during half term. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny and due to the recent good spell, the river wasn’t running fast or high. There was a good turnout, some of whom had joined us before so it was nice to see familiar faces. Four brilliant volunteers helped with dipping and identification and throughout the morning we found lots of lovely minibeasts including stoneflies and mayflies which tell us…