In-River Improvements.
The Wild Trout Trust has awarded the RGCG a grant of £1,500, for which we are most grateful. This comes from a National Scheme, the Cinderella Project, which is administered by the Trust and the Environment Agency. The scheme seeks to promote conservation work on some of the less well known English chalk rivers. The RGCG objective is to improve a stretch of in-river habitat for various species of fish, invertebrates and water plants.
A significant part of the grant will be spent on a consultant who can advise on the practical detail of our proposals; and the costing for materials, machine work and man hours of labour (the voluntary component will be funding in kind).
The reasons for obtaining this expert advice are two-fold. The first is to ensure that the landowners are in agreement of what is planned, both the wider concept and the specific work; and the second is to enable us to apply for a licence of consent from the Environment Agency, necessary for any river works great or small. Also of course we want to see the work done to the best of our ability.
The stretch of the river for which the work is proposed runs through the river meadows immediately upstream from Letheringsett Ford to beyond Thornage Common. Our ambition is that the “before and after” measures and wildlife improvements will have an educational purpose for schools as well as the intrinsic wildlife benefits. If as we very much hope the project comes to fruition then there will certainly be scope for voluntary labour!
