We are haunted by waters – Making Rivers Better event
What happens when you put over a hundred river-loving folk from across East Devon, West Dorset and South Somerset together for a celebration of all the good work done in 2024 for local rivers?
Let me tell you. This is what happens …
“What a brilliant event!!! Really enjoyed it and great catching up with so many people, including some newbies, which is always good!”
So said Blackdown Hills National Landscape Manager Tim Youngs continuing,
“What I found particularly refreshing was that people could talk openly about the issues they are finding, the buzz of energy in the room and the sense of a shared goal that we are all aiming for – powerful stuff!’
Making Rivers Better is a network of good people working hard to turn around the decline in their rivers. People who do water-quality monitoring and riverfly surveys. Fisher folk – the eyes and ears of the river. Wild swimmers, nature lovers, wildlife recorders and members of the public who simply care and want to make a difference sat alongside people representing organisations as diverse as Natural England, Westcountry Rivers Trust, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West, local authority councillors, and the Blackdown Hills and East Devon National Landscapes.
Speakers from the River Lim Action Group focused on their mission to clean sewage from the Lim one pipe at a time. Representing the River Axe Landscape Recovery Project, Giles Aspinall spoke about endeavours to slow the flow of the Axe to ease problems of riverbed erosion and the disconnection of the river from her flood plain. On the River Sid they told tales of wrestling migratory sea trout out of the river before the mighty school weir and transporting them upstream (in a wheelie bin!) to their historic spawning grounds.
This Making Rivers Better event was organised by the newly launched Friends of the River Axe community group speaking as ‘the people of the place’ and as ‘the voice of the river’.
I was delighted see so many people who are ‘haunted by waters’. I even got the opportunity to speak up for the Axe estuary as we often forget that the River Axe has a bottom end.
The Kit Brook River Restoration team showcased their short film ‘Our Friend the River’ (see below) made by Hyper-mouse Ltd and featuring the emotion-stirring music of Patrick Ytting.
Patrick, who was in the audience for his first outing with river enthusiasts, reflected:
“It is, in a way, quite sad that it falls on such monumental voluntary effort to address wrongs that our environment and the rivers suffer, but it was very inspiring to hear about the successes and the overall progress and what a positive celebration it was.”
Making Rivers Better is a free network for river-loving volunteers and citizen scientists, coordinated by Blackdown Hills National Landscape on behalf of East Devon Catchment Partnership, with significant support from a group of very committed volunteers.
The events provide an opportunity for members of the public interested in or already involved with river citizen science to:
- Meet with community groups, technical specialists, local experts and organisations to explore how to work together to benefit our local rivers.
- Find out about the work community groups and organisations are doing to support the health of our rivers.
- Learn how the results of citizen science surveys inform action on the ground.
- Discover how to get involved in river-related volunteer activities.
