Our Latest News Update

Photo: Langstrothdale at sunrise by Christopher Burgess - one of the competition winning photographs in our 2027 calendar - see below for details

In this issue:

Natural Flood Management Open Day Success

Championing Yorkshire’s rivers through collaboration and advocacy

Rivers4Life Everyone Loves Rivers Film

Let there be life!

The YDRT 2027 Calendar

Tees-Swale Naturally Connected comes to a close

Sampling and testing the River Ure

Webinar - Breaking Barriers and Restoring Natural River Processes

Our Blogs - Soils, NFM and more!

Natural Flood Management Open Day Success

A pioneering natural flood management scheme on the Hauxwell Estate, near Leyburn in the Swale catchment, is demonstrating how working with nature at a landscape scale can help reduce flood risk, restore valuable habitats and deliver benefits for farming.

We recently showcased the 8.96-hectare wetland, created by us through the Ousewem project, highlighting what can be achieved when landowners and environmental organisations work together.

At the heart of the scheme is the transformation of Brompton Beck, where a previously straightened section of watercourse has been ‘re-wiggled’ to restore its natural meanders. Together with a network of ponds, scrapes and other natural flood management features, the scheme slows the flow of water through the landscape, reducing downstream flood risk and recreating important wetland habitats.

Read more from Project Manager, Matthew Lyall via the button below:

Championing Yorkshire’s rivers through collaboration & advocacy

Protecting and restoring our rivers means more than just practical action on the ground − it also means ensuring rivers have a voice in the conversations, policies and decisions that shape their future.

The recent Yorkshire Rivers Charter event organised by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and attended by YDRT CEO, Marie Taylor and Senior Catchment Partnership Manager, Charlotte Simons brought together a diverse community united by a shared ambition for positive change.

There was a strong sense that whilst many organisations and community groups are already taking action, greater collaboration and a more unified voice could help build wider public support and influence future decision-making.

The event also provided an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with rivers. As a society, we have shaped and modified our landscapes and waterways over many generations to support communities, industry and economic growth. Whilst these changes have brought significant benefits, we now better understand some of the unintended impacts on river health, wildlife and natural processes. This presents an opportunity to learn from the past and take positive steps forward.

Our involvement in events such as this, alongside our engagement with groups such as Nidd Action Group and Stop Ure Pollution , reflects our commitment to being part of these conversations, helping to turn shared ambitions into meaningful action.

The Charter's long-term value will depend on its ability to inspire practical action and lasting change. We will continue to engage with the process and follow what this means for Yorkshire's rivers in the months years ahead − as well as keeping you updated about our advocacy work through this newsletter.

Photo: YDRT’s Marie Taylor and Charlotte Simons

Rivers4Life Everyone Loves Rivers - Film

We are now more than halfway through the second year of our three-year National Lottery Heritage funded Rivers4Life programme, enabling us to work with schools and community groups along the rivers in our catchment, collaborating with artists to inspire children and local communities to learn more about rivers and their wildlife.

One of the highlights of our recent Rivers4Life exhibition, which brought the environmental science of rivers to life through art, was a brilliant two-minute stop-motion film created by Years 3 and 4 at Applegarth Primary School, Northallerton entitled ‘ Everyone Loves Rivers ’ . Think Wallace and Gromit − but 2D and all about rivers!

The good news is that everyone can now watch this creative and informative film via our website on the button below along with the story of how it was made.

Let there be life!

There is also an opportunity to engage directly with our Rivers4Life project directly on Saturday 28 November at a concert in Grinton near Reeth featuring Marske Community Choir, Muker Silver Band, The Dales Dance School and guest musicians, to celebrate life on earth with music, light, art and dance.

The children of Reeth Community Infant School and Gunnerside Methodist Junior School, and The Federation of Middleham CE (VA) Junior School and Spennithorne CE (VA) Infant School will also be contributing to this innovative event, preparing through a series of art, music and river wildlife workshops hosted by our Rivers4Life project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. See poster below:

The YDRT 2027 Calendar

A big thank you to everyone who entered our photography competition. We were blown away by the standard of your beautiful images!

The winning images from each of the four seasons displayed at the Rivers4Life exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum earlier this year feature in The Rivers4Life 2027 calendar - now available to purchase for £10 through the Dales Countryside Museum shop, or our online shop (£10 + p&p).

Photo: Autumn leaf, River Ure by John Hayden - one of the competition winning photographs in our 2027 calendar

Tees-Swale Naturally Connected comes to a close

The North Pennines National Landscape’s Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected programme has come to an end, marking six years of work to restore, enhance and connect habitats across Teesdale and Swaledale.

As lead delivery partner, working alongside the Mining Remediation Authority , and with part-funding from the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) programme, we delivered a £900,000 element of the project focused on tackling pollution from historic metal mines.

Over the past five years, we have established vegetation across nearly 3.9 Ha of previously bare mine waste , installed 500 metres of revetments to help prevent toxic heavy metals entering watercourses, and laid 900 metres of drainage . We have also helped plant nearly 1,000 locally grown, rare calaminarian plants and 200 metal-tolerant trees .

At a recent event celebrating the project’s achievements, we joined landowners, farmers and project partners including Mining Remediation Authority, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and North Pennines National Landscape . We were delighted to see the evidence of the positive impact of our work on water quality, with the Environment Agency , another key project partner, presenting monitoring results that demonstrated measurable improvements.

The event celebrated what can be achieved through collaboration, with partners working together to transform a landscape once described as “looking like Mars” into a greener, more biodiverse environment with improved water quality.

Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected is a fantastic example of how partnership working, research and practical action can deliver lasting benefits for our landscapes and waterways.

Photo: Measurable improvements in water quality at Marl Beck, Teesdale

Sampling and testing the River Ure

Our volunteers were out in force on the River Ure in October, carrying out water quality monitoring along the whole length of the river to help gauge its health. Samples were collected and tested for E. coli, nitrates, phosphates, conductivity, and suspended solids. We are currently awaiting the laboratory results and look forward to sharing the findings in our next newsletter.

Thank you to all our volunteers and Stop Ure Pollution who supported us!

Photo: A volunteer from Stop Ure Pollution collecting a sample

Webinar - Breaking Barriers: Restoring natural river processes

Sarah Lonsdale, our Project Manager for River Enhancement will be hosting a talk for Yorkshire Rewilding Network about our work restoring fish passage across some of the rivers in our catchment on 16 December, 7.30pm.
She will highlight how healthy rivers depend on connectivity as fish need to move freely to spawn, forage and find refuge – with structures like weirs, culverts and sluices blocking that migration. Sarah will explain how river trusts - like YDRT - and the Great Yorkshire Rivers partnership are working to reconnect rivers across the region , along with insight into her own major fish barrier removal project delivered in North Yorkshire. Book for this webinar via the button below:

Photo: A brown trout c. Wild Trout Trust

Our Blogs - Soils, NFM and more!

We now have a number of blogs written by our experienced project managers and officers offering the inside take on their work and its positive impact on not only rivers and streams, but wider nature and wildlife. Find out more about the benefits to farming and rivers of creating resilient soils, natural flood management and the importance of outfall surveys - amongst many other topics.

All our blogs are published on our News page - click on the button below:

Photo: YDRT’s Jennifer Lee and Sarah Lonsdale carrying out outfall surveys