The Rivers Trust is pleased to announce the dates of the next training courses in diffuse water pollution in agriculture and fluvial geomorphology.

Both courses will be hosted by Eden Rivers Trust, Cumbria on the following dates:

Fluvial geomorphology – April 19th and 20th
Diffuse Water Pollution in Agriculture – May 23rd and 24th

Course programmes and booking forms can be found here
Please return booking forms to Barry Bendall.
Places on these courses are very limited so please make sure you book early.
Both courses are co-funded by Natural England under the PINPOINT initiative, which aims to bolster Catchment Sensitive Farming delivery nationwide.

The Rivers Trust is pleased to welcome two newcomers to the team - Barry Bendall and Rob Collins.
Barry joined us in December 2011, taking over Archie Ruggles-Brise’s role as Regional Director – South and East. Barry worked for the previous 11 years at Cefas as a Fish Biologist in the Salmon & Freshwater Team. There he managed research projects for both the public and private sectors and specialised in understanding the migratory behaviour of salmonids.

Rob took up his role as Head of Policy and Communication in January, having worked for the previous 5 years at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. There he tackled a range of water resource and water quality issues including the implementation of European policy and legislation.

The Cumbria Freshwater Invasive Non-Native Species (CFINNS) Initiative, funded by Natural England and the Environment Agency, has recently produced a freshwater Biosecurity Plan for the county.

This innovative plan, the first of its kind in England, will help to protect freshwaters from new INNS and best manage those already present. The Cumbria plan has been developed with assistance from the Rivers and Fisheries Trust Scotland (RAFTS) and the Rivers Trust. Such plans are now urgently required for every catchment across Britain as part of a wider programme of action.

The Rivers Trust movement can play a key role in supporting this objective, making full use of the professional and volunteer network to build the local awareness and partnerships that are critical to the long-term success of biosecurity plans. Moreover, a number of rivers trusts have on-going project experience in tackling freshwater INNS. Bekka Corrie-Close, the coordinator of the CFINNS Initiative is hosted by South Cumbria Rivers Trust.

For more information on the Cumbria Plan email; bekka@scrt.co.uk or visit www.scrt.co.uk/cfinns

The Rivers Trust and RAFTS jointly organized the third sector GB Invasive Non Native species and biosecurity conference in June 2011. More information and presentations from the conference available on our web site here

The Rivers Trust is a key partner in a new European project funded under the INTERREG IVC programme. TRAP – Territories of Rivers Action Plans – aims to develop regional policy plans that enable sustainable economic growth whilst ensuring good water quality and thereby supporting the aims of the Water Framework Directive.

Each partner is to identify good practices with respect to protection of the aquatic environment, feeding them into the policy plans. The Rivers Trust would like to capture the expertise and experience available across the movement as a whole, including, for example that related to WFD water quality monitoring, stakeholder engagement, use of assessment tools, implementation of the paid ecosystem services approach, catchment management and river restoration.

For more information please contact; rob@theriverstrust.org

The Government recently released the Water White Paper ‘Water for Life’ which describes a vision for future water management in which water is valued as a precious and finite resource.

In addition to a forthcoming reform of the water abstraction regime, the paper also highlights the catchment approach to dealing with water quality and wider environmental issues, specifically mentioning the work of rivers trusts in this regard.

The full document is available here