Our Latest News
in this issue…
HLF Funding Launches Rivers4Life | Mapping Harrogate Becks | Soil Health | BlueSky Social | Ousewem – Natural Flood Management | Latest Volunteer News | iNidd AGM | Ousewem partners with Sustainable Swaledale
What’s been happening …
Our big news this month is that we’ve been awarded a grant of £245,000 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to continue our work with communities and schools, raising awareness of rivers and wildlife! Read the full story below.
And – we have a social media update – we are now on Blue Sky Social too at: @yorkdalesrt.bsky.social
Rivers4Life
A grant of £245,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund will be used for our new schools and community education project, Rivers4Life. The project will run for three years incorporating a diverse programme of events providing opportunities to learn about rivers and wildlife, and the importance of increasing ownership of sustainable living to help rivers thrive. There will also be an exhibition in summer 2026 hosted by The Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.
Our education and engagement officer Catherine Mason will be working with schools along the rivers and tributaries of the Ure, Swale, Nidd, Ouse and Wharfe to continue educating about everything to do with rivers. Using our mobile classroom, children will learn about the journey of a river and investigate freshwater invertebrates which live in our rivers, supporting understanding of how the presence or absence of riverfly species denotes the health of a watercourse. Catherine will also be working with schools and community groups in the Swale and Ure catchments, using visual and performing arts to offer a different perspective on the threats faced by our rivers, along with supporting learning about sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), and natural flood management (NFM) features in the landscape such as leaky barriers, trees, hedges and wet pastures, to help reduce the impacts of flooding.
Rivers4Life will be running events from spring 2025 and we will update you about these through our e news and social platforms.
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Rivers4Life is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Ousewem – Natural Flood Management
Our Ousewem (Ouse Water Environment Management) team have now completed their second natural flood management (NFM) pilot project in Appersett, near Hawes, and are now ready to roll out the programme on a wider scale.
With the support and collaboration of landowner Nick Prince, they’ve delivered impactful measures such as scrapes, leaky dams and tree and hedge planting that reduce flood risks, enhance wildlife habitats, and support farming – all fully funded.
As a result the focus areas have been expanded to include Arkengarthdale, Masham, and Bishop Monkton – get in touch to find out more or discuss the possibility of tailored NFM solutions for your land via the button below.
ps keep an eye out for our Ousewem Hello Lamp Post posters and beer mats around Hawes and Reeth – simply scan the QR code to find out more about the project.
Natural Flood Management on Film…
If you want to learn more about Natural Flood Management (NFM) then you can now watch our NFM Programme Manager, Amanda Crossfield explain all about the innovative Ousewem project via this brilliant YouTube talk
Nidd Action Group AGM
If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the Nidd Action Group (NAG) and its restoration and monitoring work on the river and its catchment, why not come along to its AGM on 25 February (4.30-7.30pm) at Centre-On-Gracious-Street, Knaresborough. Sarah Lonsdale, YDRT project manager for river enhancement will be on hand talking about our collaborative work with NAG on the Nidd. The event also include talks by University of York, Wild Trout Trust, Environment Agency, University of Leeds, North Yorkshire Council and Yorkshire Water.
This is a good opportunity to meet members of the group and find out how you can get involved as a volunteer.
Mapping Harrogate Becks
We are in the early stages of an ambitious three-year programme to bring Harrogate’s rivers back to life. The project aims to restore Oak, Bilton and Crimple becks, which run through the area and have for many years been neglected.
Sarah Lonsdale, Project Manager for River Enhancement and Prof. Jonathan Grey from the Wild Trout Trust have just finished surveying the main stem of Oak Beck from its source at Beaver Dyke Reservoir, to where it meets the River Nidd at Harrogate North Sewage Treatment Works. This initial survey is already illustrating that there is a lot of pollution around the urban landscape of Harrogate, specifically with issues of polluting outfalls that likely stem from misconnections in the surface water drainage network.
The final step in the mapping of the water quality of Oak Beck will be to conduct an ‘outfall safari’ to identify any misconnected pipes from households that feed directly into the watercourse. Outfall safaris are a citizen science method designed to identify and address pollution from surface outfalls in urban rivers.
Sarah said: “Decades of errors in internal plumbing – especially in older houses – means that appliances such as washing machines can be sending their foul water into the surface water drainage system that flows directly into rivers and streams as opposed to the foul water system and local sewage works to be treated.”
If you are interested in taking part in an outfall safari along Oak Beck please contact us via the button below:
Soil Health – Why it Matters
Understanding soils is fundamental to profitable grassland farming. It is often thought that the soils under grass are in good health, however, a recent Defra-funded survey of 300 grassland fields indicated that only 40 per cent of fields had good soil structure. Soil compaction occurs when soil particles are compressed, reducing the spaces between them, which carry vital air and water through the soil.
Compaction can cause: ● 10–20 per cent reduction in grass growth ● Restricted drainage ● Poor rooting ● Reduced nutrient uptake ● Increased weed burden ● Increased risk of run-off ● soil erosion ● nutrient loss.
Join us for an online event on Wednesday 19 March 12pm – 12.45pm about soil health and its crucial role in farming and the environment.
This talk – funded by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust – is aimed at those with little to no knowledge about soil health who are keen to find out more!
Volunteering Update
Over the last month our volunteers have been out at Skeeby Beck in the Swale catchment coppicing. This is an ancient woodland management technique that dates back to the stone age involving cutting the tree down to encourage it to regrow with lots of smaller shoots. The team then made a dead hedge with the timber from the fallen trees, which helps to prevent erosion to the riverbank by sheep, and also stop the willow trees damaging the bank if they fall.
Our volunteers also helped out with some hedge planting at Appersett in support of the Ousewem project.
We have some Riverfly monitoring volunteering opportunities coming up in March – get in touch via the button below if you’d like to find out more.
Ousewem partners with Sustainable Swaledale
Our NFM programme manager, Amanda Crossfield and senior NFM project officer, Guy Mason will be talking at Sustainable Swaledale’s 6 March 7pm meeting at the Arkengarthdale Hub about Ousewem’s local flood resilience in the area. This is a great opportunity to find out more about real, local solutions to flood risk and how nature-based solutions protect communities, whilst also offering the chance to meet others interested in sustainability in Swaledale. No RSVP required.
There will also be a further meeting for farmers and landowners who have land along Arkle Beck on 10 March, 7pm at The Buck, Reeth for those interested in partnering with us on the Ousewem programme. This is an in-person opportunity (along with a complimentary pie and peas supper) to find out more about fully funded natural flood management projects, along with advice on grants and funding including SFI funding from YDNPA Farm Conservation Adviser, Hannah Fawcett. To find out more email via the button below
