Trout in the Town:

Through the invitation and efforts of Howard Bayley and Hellen Hornby, myself and long-time Conservation Champion Stuart Crofts enjoyed a day of bringing an exotic note to two groups of students that Hellen teaches about the great outdoors every Friday. Our idea was fairly simple - to show how an interest in rivers that has been fostered through paddling in and learning to fly fish local streams can take you to some unexpected and wonderful places. Most/all of the students (prior to being involved with Hellen's lessons at the College) have very little experience or knowledge of, or engagement with nature and the outdoors. Consequently, it is exceptionally gratifying when you see their attention held by an activity like fly tying or a slideshow of their local river, which runs by the college, placed next to photographs and videos of mountain streams in Japan (and the people who pursue the same outdoor pastimes as we do in Yorkshire). This event, and other outdoor engagement act...

All Photos: Tim Longstaff, Wandle Trust That was then: Silt-choked channel in pleasant surroundings of Carshalton Between 2009 and 2011, the Wild Trout Trust spent many hours alongside the Wandle Trust battling to get approval for some simple and cheap improvements that could start to relieve some of the impacts (at least to some degree) caused by poor habitat quality. Due to the location of the stream within a heavily urbanised and densely populated part of London, this process was extremely arduous; as consenting officers were extremely wary of any potential risks to surrounding structures such as walls, footpaths and the ever-present fear of flooding. The culmination of that part of the process was a wonderful urban conclave event ( 2011 Urban Conclave ) which saw urban stream-care volunteers from around the country gathering to take part in the in-stream habitat improvements that had, at last, been granted permission to go ahead. At that time funding had also been secured ...