Trent Rivers Trust

Sometimes river restoration looks like this! As part of our mission to inspire people to connect to the Trent, we decided to celebrate its iconic wildlife in a BIG way. Inspired by local school children in Stoke, the fantastic team at We are Culla is bringing the childrens' impressions of the Trent and its wild residents to life. Keep your eyes peeled - the kingfisher is going to have some company 👀 This project was made possible thanks to UKSPF funding.

🐟 Save Severn Estuary's Fish: Sign the petition and demand action from Hinkley! Did you know that the new Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power station will extract 132,000 litres of cooling water every second from the estuary? That's equivalent to draining three Olympic-sized swimming pools every minute. 🤯 ❌ Without the promised Acoustic Fish Deterrent (AFD), this process puts millions of fish—including endangered species like Atlantic salmon and European eel—at risk of being sucked into its intake system and killed every year. EDF agreed to install this crucial protection back in 2013, but a decade later, it’s still not in place. Instead, EDF is trying to back out of installing it and proposing alternative compensation measures that fall woefully short of protecting these fragile ecosystems. We are not against the power station providing vital energy for the UK, BUT we are demanding that EDF install the agreed-upon fish protection measures and properly address the damage to the Severn Estuary's precious ecosystems. 🫵 What can you do? Help us hold EDF accountable and ensure that they do not go back on their plans to install the acoustic fish deterrent—sign the petition today 👇 https://lnkd.in/ex8JHfqe The petition is proudly supported by Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, Angling Trust, Severn Rivers Trust, West Wales Rivers Trust, Afonydd Cymru, Wildlife and Countryside Link, and many more. If your organisation would like to lend its support or receive the comms pack, please get in touch!

🔊 Sound on for sometimes river recovery can be audible Five years ago, this stretch of the river Mease was overdeep with little vegetation. Dredging intended to move as much water possible as quickly as possible. In the process it caused bankside erosion and degraded habitat. Reintroduced gravel now: 💧raises the river bed 🌱provides substrate for plants like water crowfoot 💙 oxygenates the water 🐟 creates spawning grounds

Natural flood management is gaining momentum but how effective is the approach? With expert speakers from JBA Consulting and The Rivers Trust, we're exploring the modelling for the economic damage avoided and the effectiveness of different natural flood management interventions in the Soar catchment. Whether you're a practitioner or advocate for Nature-based Solutions dive into the results during our lunchtime webinar on 12th February at 12:00-13:00. Sign up via the link below 👇 https://lnkd.in/dZ894GT2

Our rivers face challenges that can't be solved in isolation. As catchment hosts of the Lower Trent and Erewash catchment partnership, we're bringing together voices, insights and research so learnings can translate into bigger, better, more joined up solutions for the Trent and its tributaries. Yesterday was an example of catchment partnership learning in action. Speakers brought insights on soil health, barriers to fish migration on the Trent, natural flood management, INNS, beavers reintroduction, urban rivers and green finance. A big thank you goes out to our hosts Nottingham Trent University, Environment Agency, University of Nottingham, Leicestershire County Council, AHDB - Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, AHDB - Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Nottinghamshire County Council Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and our very own - Nicholas Wilding and Ruth Needham. Keen to stay in updated? Join our newsletters to find out about funding opportunities, events and learnings in the Soar, Dove, Tame, Anker Mease and Lower Trent and Erewash. https://shorturl.at/2yUjJ

Did you know Britain has been quietly increasing exports of endangered European eels to Russia—from 500,000 in 2022 to 3 million in 2024? A new proposal would ramp this up even further to 15 million! Officials claim that sending eels to Kaliningrad helps them return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, however, this is misleading. In reality, they are farmed in contained areas for consumption. And whilst the imported fish could, in theory, leave Russian waters after several years, the Director of Kaliningrad’s Fisheries Agency stated, ‘by that time, they will have already been caught’. This is happening at a time when: 🐟 European eels are listed as critically endangered 🚫 No river in England or Wales is meeting conservation targets The focus must be on protecting our precious eel populations and ensuring that our rivers are clean and healthy so that they can provide the vital habitats they need to survive and thrive. We have joined other organisations in signing a letter to raise this issue and you can help by supporting the petition to stop the export of baby eels. Read the letter 👇 https://lnkd.in/efC6GHdi Support the petition 👇 https://lnkd.in/e6GKRHw5

Flooding, wildfires, species decline and chronic pollution, the headlines about nature loss and the climate emergency are scary. But what if you could be part of the solution and call to ensure the UK is doing its bit to avoid worsening climate chaos? Taking action is simple. Ask your MP to support and attend the second reading of the Climate and Nature Act - the CAN Bill. Tools, templates and further info can be found via the link below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eK2hmSjm

Happy holidays from Trent Rivers Trust! ☃️ Before we put up our Out of Office until 2025, we'd like to thank our wonderful partners, collaborators and supporters that helped us deliver some incredibly exciting projects this year. Thank you for your passion, expertise and continued commitment 💙 Here's to another year of restoring, protecting and improving our rivers and catchments together.

2024 has been a great year to help do my bit to naturalise rivers and connect them to their floodplains, reversing some of the damage done in the past. But the best bit is being able to influence others to cherish our rivers, to promote catchment management for the benefit of all, and being part of the amazing team at Trent Rivers Trust. 😊

Supporting the recovery river lamprey on the Trent 🐟 Last week, Trent Rivers Trust staff joined colleagues from Hull International Fisheries Institute (HIFI) on-site trapping and tagging river lamprey at Cromwell Weir, the Trent’s largest barrier. This research will help us understand more about our native populations and to better target conservation efforts. The team tagged lamprey and relocated them above some of the other major barriers along the lower Trent. This supports population growth by bypassing barriers and increases numbers at suitable spawning grounds, strengthening populations in the Trent. 🐟River lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) are the rarest of our three native species of lamprey in the UK and are amongst the most primitive of all vertebrate animals. 📉Once abundant in the Trent, their numbers have declined due to a number of pressures including river pollution, habitat loss and barriers to migration. River lamprey are now a protected species and widely considered as ‘threatened’ in the UK. 🐟 Mature river lamprey spend 1-2 years living within estuaries or the sea. Around this time of year, they stop feeding and return to freshwater, making an epic migration upstream to find suitable habitat for spawning in the springtime. We're thrilled to support the research and recovery of river lamprey as part of the Natural England Species Recovery Programme.