Pang, Kennet and Lambourne catchment - Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) initiative

Coordinator Karen Davies    Oct 08

Sites      Being established
Team      tbc
Activity   Initiated September 08

The first FWAG Riverfly Partnership workshop was held in September 2008, with participants including riverkeepers, anglers and land owners amongst others. Plans are being developed to further integrate the farming community and the monitoring programme across the catchment in 2009.

 

River Kennet - Action for the River Kennet (ARK) & Savenake Flyfishers

Coordinator Stuart Gould     31 Oct 07

Sites      River Kennet (2)
Team      8+
Activity   September 2007
www.riverkennet.org

Following the Riverfly Conferences in 2004 & 2007 I felt the time had come to translate the theory into practice.  Preliminary soundings amongst fellow anglers on the Upper Kennet were sufficiently encouraging for me to approach Bridget Peacock at the Natural History Museum.  The next thing I knew Cyril Bennett was appointed course tutor and we had our very own Riverfly Montioring for Anglers course . Twelve members of ARK and Savernake Flyfishers attended the workshop which we hosted in the Biology Laboratory of Marlborough College.

The Kennet flows through the grounds of the College making for convenient proximity of classroom and river.  Thanks to Cyril’s unparalleled knowledge and enthusiasm we had a great day which was educational and fun – no better way to learn.  We are very grateful to Marlborough College and to Housemaster Sean Dempster for facilitating this.

Two months on and we have a regular monitoring programme in place.  We monitor at two sites. One is at Marlborough College and the other is at Mildenhall.  Sean monitors the College site along with two students, as part of their environmental studies. These two sites are strategically placed in that they are above and below the town of Marlborough and hence ideally located to detect any pollution arising from the town.  These sites complement the historical monitoring previously carried out by the Environment Agency at Stitchcombe which is further downstream.  Our local EA Officer is actively supporting us.  We are fortunate in having John Hounslow as our River Keeper.  His expertise and hard work are second to none and the fantastic state of the river this year (with some help from the rain!) a testimony to him.  John is strongly in favour of the monitoring initiative and typically does everything he can to support us.  River Keepers downstream on the Kennet have shown interest in our monitoring programme and hopefully may wish to extend the programme to their stretches of the river.

We are hoping that most people on the course will contribute to the monitoring.  So far more than half of those who attended the course have taken part in the monitoring or have committed themselves to do so.  All of those involved are members of ARK and about half are regular or occasional anglers and members of Savernake Flyfishers. They all share a love of the river and an enthusiasm to improve and protect the Kennet. We feel we are privileged to be able to enjoy the river and wish to contribute to its well being.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts

Coordinator - tbc

www.wiltshirewildlife.org

» Wessex Chalk Streams Project Autumn 07 - River Monitoring – PDF-File, 217.4 KB