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…
Soil is currently being destroyed 10 times faster than it is being created. This is not only putting the farming sector at risk and costing England & Wales £1.2 billion a year, but it is also negatively affecting the health of our rivers. A new report by WWF, The Rivers Trust and The Angling Trust shows that spending approximately £10 million a year on soil protection measures would ensure a future for agriculture and reverse the decline of our rivers. This…
Following some feedback from residents in the Lowick and Blawith area of the catchment Kath decided it was time to give an update on how the project was progressing. Chatting with one of our volunteers Anne Cleaver, we settled on an evening talk to be held at Water Year Village Hall.So the next thing to do was to decide what to talk about… Hmm…… I thought it was time to do something other than the usual 45 minute PowerPoint presentation…
Last Sunday Kath joined up with the Lake District National Park on one of their volunteer led guided walks. The walk started from Torver schoolroom and headed onto Torver common, taking in Torver Tarn and Beacon Tarn. Lindsay Harrison was an excellent guide, pointing out the history behind archaeological features and the more modern slip trenches. Kath also talked a little about the project aims, the de-culverting work at Water Park and the beck naturalisation at Thurston. On the return…
Project Officer Mike continuing work along the River Crake, ably assisted by SCRT’s newest team member Matt,allowed out on his third day! Large Woody Debris (LWD) or engineered woody structures (EWS) are used to create fish refuge sites. Selected trees are felled at the bank-side and anchored closely into the side with steel cable. This mimics natural processes but in a controlled way. These are particularly beneficial on straight sections of river adding shade and briefly changing flow. They are also good…
The nest box workshop held in Coniston as part of National Nestbox Week was well attended with fantastic box making skills on show. A variety of boxes were made; those with a hole in the front were for blue tits, great tits and tree sparrows. Open fronted ones were made for robins, wrens and spotted flycatchers. Special boxes for bats were made too. It was great to see so many joining in the making and others for showing an interest…
Year 9 students from John Ruskin school spent a morning learning about the project, in particular the work to improve biodiversity and habitats for birds and bats. The students, who are working on the their John Muir awards, found out for themselves how hard it is to make a nest out of natural materials – just using a beak or in their case tweezers! The session was rounded off with the making of 10 nest boxes for birds that will be…
What a way to mark World Wetlands Day! The sun was shining as 10 merry walkers joined Kath on this short walk to discover a little more about the importance of wetlands. Starting south of Torver the walk went up to Torver tarn, along paths that cross priority habitats of Upland Flushes, Fens and Swamps, dominated by sedge, rush, and moss. From Beckstones we walked passed the beautiful Kelly Hall Tarn and Long Moss, giving far reaching views across Coniston…
Well what a year it turned out to be for the HLF Conserving Coniston & Crake project. News came in June that the Heritage Lottery Fund bid had been successful so then it was full steam ahead. The Project Officer and the Communities & Engagement Officer were appointed and work began on delivering the conservation and community projects. One of the first conservation projects to get under way was at Thurston Outdoor Education Centre with the naturalising of a…
The latest practical conservation volunteer work party took place at Thurston Outdoor Education Centre on Monday 18th December. Eight volunteers joined staff from the centre as we planted 120 trees along the banks of their new beck. The beck had been created as part of the hydro works that Thurston had installed last year. The project helped to naturalise the new channel, adding slights bends, improving the beck bed and reseeding the banks. The channel was also fenced off with…