Monitoring Data – Where does it go? The Environment Agency are currently reviewing their monitoring programme and how this links with other organisations such as Rivers Trusts and the Catchment Partnerships. Therefore, this offers us a great opportunity to get involved and influence some of the outcomes. We’ve been working at a national level to discuss how the monitoring you help us undertake, including riverfly surveys and electrofishing, can be co-ordinated with data from other sources. This includes information from…

We have been working with a number of organisations and the local community to start the exciting task of pulling together a large-scale project in the Kent Catchment. However, it’s not just us, we are also asking you to share your concerns and what you love about your local river. This project will gather peoples perceptions on the catchment, aiming to address some of the concerns and celebrate what a beautiful river the Kent is. Additionally, it will explore the heritage…

What lies beneath: helping your local beck SCRT are bidding to bag a cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative to support on-going riverfly monitoring in the Barrow and Ulverston area. Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores – being awarded to local community projects. Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the…

Happy #binitforbeaches week! LOVEmyBEACH is supporting the week long, nationwide #binitforbeaches campaign which focuses on raising awareness of the damage flushed wet wipes has on the UK’s beaches. If you’re planning on visiting one 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 these wipes have been left here as litter; millions of wipes are wrongly flushed down the…

From Saturday 2nd to Saturday 9th September 2017 Friends of the Lake District are inviting you to visit our great Cumbrian landscapes, to immerse yourself and to share your thoughts, ideas and comments about why landscapes are important to you. A packed programme of events offers a whole range of ways to get involved and experience the landscape. As an introduction to Great Landscapes Week, Friends of the Lake District will be launching ‘Why Landscape Matters, a Landscape Charter for…

Celebrating the River Kent with the Kent Catchment Partnership The Kent Catchment Partnership, a local community group supported under the umbrella of South Cumbria Rivers Trust, held a successful evening at Sprint Mill, where they discussed options for developing a project to celebrate this beautiful catchment. The Kent catchment is the last stronghold in the UK and probably Europe for  our native white clawed crayfish which are present throughout the catchment. Across their European range white clawed crayfish have declined…

Conserving Coniston & Crake – Healthy water for wildlife and communities The Coniston and Crake Catchment Partnership under the umbrella of South Cumbria Rivers Trust have been awarded a grant of £763,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to manage the Conserving Coniston & Crake project for the local community’s Coniston and Crake Catchment Partnership. This is a great example of communities and partnerships working together to achieve large scale success; delivering improvements to the catchments’ water quality, habitats and…

This week is volunteers week and as usual the partnership is busy, with numerous events occurring across South Cumbria. As a volunteer and a member of the Becks to Bay partnership you make a huge contribution to the area of South Cumbria. The knowledge and love of the catchments you hold is vital to identifying new opportunities and new ways to improve the area for future generations. We can achieve more when we all come together as a community. The opportunities to volunteer…

Wildlife Sightings Whilst we are working hard to improve habitat for our native wildlife and there is still a way to go, it can’t be forgotten that we live in a beautiful part of the world which already supports a wide variety of wildlife. Just this weekend I had my first sighting of an otter playing down near the rocks at K Village in Kendal. Have you seen an otter recently? Or maybe a kingfisher? If  so we would love…

For a number of years now we have been part of the Cumbria River Restoration Strategy partnership, progressing the re-naturalisation of our local rivers. In South Cumbria we recently completed a project at Staveley to remove an embankment along the River Kent. This project was a partnership between the farmer, John Nichol, South Cumbria Rivers Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England, CaBA, Biffa Award and the EU LIFE IP ‘Natural Course’ project. Nearly 800 metres of man-made embankment and river…