• Diary Dates
• Eden Trout Stream Workshop
• Pointing the way for Rivers Trusts and Farmers
• Living North Sea Project

• ART Spring Seminar hosted by Ballinderry
• Cross channel partnership
• River Improvement Projects Boost

Eden Rivers Trust in partnership with the Wild Trout Trust and the Association of Rivers Trusts presents:

23rd & 24th March 2010 at the Tufton Arms Hotel, Appleby, Cumbria

Further details are available from the Eden Rivers Trust website:
http://trust.edenriverstrust.org.uk/stream-workshop-2010-2.html

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ART is proud to be lead partner of the Living North Sea project, which brings together 15 partners from 7 countries in the North Sea Region to address the problems facing sea trout, eel and other migratory fish.
Work on this initiative began in the Autumn of 2009 with a review of current knowledge on fish migration and problems in the region. This will lead to a programme of work over the next two years to fill essential knowledge gaps using fish tracking and modern genetic techniques, and a number of demonstrations of solutions to fish passage problems.

The project has a total budget of €6.4M and is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg IVB North Sea Region programme. The project will be officially launched on the 26th March in Ghent, Belgium with representatives of the EU Commission.

The LNS partnership shares many issues across the North Sea Region where co-operation will be of considerable value. The ‘death by a thousand cuts’ to fish migration on a national scale is nothing in comparison to a potential regional impact, and this may be of further significance to fish such as sea trout who may be sharing habitats across many countries.

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The first in a series of free training courses designed to help Rivers Trusts tackle diffuse pollution in their catchments was a great success, leading to 10 trained Trust staff and hopefully many more engaged via farming and voluntary activities.

The Westcountry Rivers Trust kindly hosted the course giving the trainees the opportunity to see for themselves some of the knowledge and practical expertise that has been accumulated in over 10 years of working with farmers in Devon and Cornwall. Trust staff came from all over the country to attend the week-long course at Duchy College where they were taught about diffuse pollution from agriculture, the river catchment and how the two interact and identifying problems. Far from being dry classroom training the students, from backgrounds as diverse as professional agricultural advice, fisheries, languages and interested volunteers, got their feet well and truly wet and muddy putting trying out the test methods, walking riverbanks and talking to farmers.

It was a great opportunity to see first hand the sort of problems that lead to sedimentation, phosphate and nitrate pollution of watercourses and, as importantly, how WRT and others have achieved success in working closely with the farming community to tackle these costly issues. The trainees can now return to their catchments with ideas and knowledge to develop their Trusts’ roles in further improving the water environment.

Huge thanks go to Ross Cherrington and Laurence Couldrick who organised and delivered such and inspiring course, no mean feat over 5 days of hard work, and to the farmers who so kindly allowed us to visit their farms.

The comments received from those who were there speak for themselves.
“Very impressed with the knowledge of the Tutors.”

“Good balance of theory and field visits to keep it interesting and cover as much as possible. Visiting and speaking with farmers in real situations was good.”

The next event is the First Advanced Course on 19-23rd April (see Diary Dates).

Rivers Trust staff visit a dairy farm during the PINPOINT Training that implemented pollution and cost reduction measures following advice from the Westcountry Rivers Trust	Carrying out infiltration tests in the rain!

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An additional £190k has been made available by Defra providing a further boost to the new and exciting £1.75m Defra funding initiative announced by Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Minister for the Marine and Natural Environment at ART's Autumn 2009 Seminar. This important initiative is now achieving major WFD ecological improvements across England, with over forty river improvement projects underway being delivered through some 14 Rivers Trusts.

The Environment Agency has provided guidance on the priorities within each of three Water Framework Directive related work packages. Site selection has been refined based on strategic importance including SAC or SSSI river status, contribution to meeting WFD Good Ecological Status (GES) and value for money.

Removal of Obstructions and Provision of Easements, Facilitating Fish Passage Projects
ART has been working closely with the EA and regional Rivers Trusts to prioritise and target a list of strategically important obstacles to fish passage for action. Priority has been given to the complete removal of obstacles where appropriate over the provision of easementsand fish passes.     

Salmon Action Plan Projects
Based on Salmon Action Plan’s (SAP’s), the EA and ART, with participation from regional Rivers Trusts, have selected and prioritised a range of projects to protect, restore and improve rivers, key species and habitats.

Eel Management Plan Projects
Projects have been prepared to deliver priorities set out in the recently completed Eel Management Plan’s (EMP’s). They focus on meeting the EU regulation, providing unrestricted river access to elvers, promoting wide dispersal as well as ensuring the free movement of migrating adults. ART is also planning to produce an information leaflet and web-link on eels aimed at anglers and the general public.

To complement the focussed WFD River Improvement Work Packages, ART and its Rivers Trusts are working in close collaboration with the EA and adding value wherever possible through maximising match funding and local community support opportunities. Considerable value will be added to the funds made available by Defra where qualifying project expenditure will be used by ART to match and draw down funding from Europe and other sources. This approach to gearing up funds is extremely important to the Rivers Trust Movement.

EA & Eels on "YouTube"
Other benefits of the initiative are the development of new technical and management skills for Rivers Trusts and the sharing of knowledge. The collaborative work on eels with the Environment Agency provides and excellent example of this, where Andy Don of the Environment Agency ran a very informative technical workshop for participating Rivers Trusts on eels and restoring access. The proof of Andy's work in overcoming the technical difficulties associated with eel access and structures like sluices can now be seen on "YouTube" where you can view a working elver and small eel pass : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh_bet7uelg

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