Trout in the Town:

Quick newsflash to flag up a heartwarming tale from Sheffield. Pictured above is Mike Allen of Wanaka, South Island New Zealand. Here he is with a trout caught on the River Don in South Yorkshire (an escapee rainbow, but we'll let him off!!). Originally from Sheffield, he left for the southern hemisphere in the 1970's. Mike says that when he left, the River Don was a gurgling mess of pollution and is delighted to see what has been achieved over the last 40 years. SPRITE (Sheffield Partnership for Rivers in Town Environments) aims to continue the protection and improvement of the Don in the urbanised reaches of the river. Mike very generously made an outright £50 donation to SPRITE saying that - whilst he couldn't help in a physical sense from his part of the world - he'd like to contribute some financial support to the project. Many, many thanks Mike for supporting a Trout in the Town project that is close to your heart and come back soon. SPRITE's website is now up...

Recent travels to Japan (For a holiday-cum-martial arts competition!) revealed a wonderful example of how urban rivers can thrive and be valued by local residents. In Matsumoto, a medium-sized city in the Nagano prefecture, an engineered channel runs alongside the uptown streets and within it flows the stream known as the “Metoba gawa”. Whilst it is true that the river channel is, overall, constrained within these engineered limits to control flood risk– the authorities have retained the excellent natural substrate and allowed/encouraged natural processes of stream bed erosion, deposition and marginal vegetation development in the base of this channel. The bankside vegetation behind the marginal strip is kept to a low enough level to allow pedestrian access via regular strimming. Consequently, there is a reasonable balance between human access, mown low-level flowering plants and grassland vegetation (supporting many butterflies and other invertebrates) versus more “shaggy” vegetation ...

John Blewitt of SPRITE recently organised a great fun social event and friendly competition on the urban River Don in Sheffield last Saturday. And what cracking fun it was too. Run by this FREE MEMBERSHIP angling club, the competition is set to become a regular event. In future it is hoped that the comp can be incorporated into a family day event and "give it a go" free angling sessions. David Blunkett came along to give his endorsements and to raise the profile of SPRITE and Mr. Blunkett's aspirations to link the local Further Education college to volunteer habitat works to safeguard and improve the river. As well as being a fun event - attended by a cross section of local anglers (including competition heavyweights like Stuart Crofts and Martin Introna!) the accurate means of measurement and recording used in Catch and Release competitions provides valuable biological census data. These data will be recorded and reported centrally to Paula Lightfoot - the Biodiversity O...

Further to an original assessment of the effects of habitat works on Derbyshire's river Goyt ( http://urbantrout.blogspot.com/2009/04/appraisal-of-trial-lwd-work-on-goyt.html ), recent E.A. electrofishing results at a short section that was subjected to bankside large woody debris (LWD) installations have captured the first ever instance of trout recruiting to this reach. Although infrequent captures of low numbers of adult trout periodically show up in surveys of this reach - there have been no previously recorded instances of juvenile fish. Furthermore, the juveniles that were captured popped up when the electrodes were swept directly amongst the branches of installed woody debris. A small result on the chart - but potentially a biologically significant insurance against recruitment failures elsewhere in the system (pollution events are an ever present threat on this, and many similar systems).

Link is available for 7 days covering my general introduction to the Wild Trout Trust. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0043zd5/At_the_Waters_Edge_27_08_2009/ Next week's programme will feature Andy Pritchard of Colne (East Lancashire)and his interview on the Colne "Trout in the Town" project.

This summer saw the first running of “Mayfly in the Classroom” at Brantwood School in Sheffield. I was so impressed by the Year 8 pupils (and their teachers, Mrs. Skidmore and Mr. Jones) who got completely involved with the whole exercise. The beginning of the two-week experiment saw lots of puzzled faces (at what possible importance a lowly insect could have). Puzzlement was also followed by a certain degree of surprise that significant proportions of the lessons would be made up of what the pupils thought and felt about the issues raised. By starting with students collating and prioritising basic requirements for almost all life on the planet (oxygen, water, nutrition and shelter/habitat), we were then able to examine how the simple plastic aquaria (made from fizzy drinks bottles) supplied all these needs. This led on to the apparatus construction and the introduction of the nymphs to their new homes... Throughout the experiment, students assumed the duty of care towards the insects....

John Blewitt and David Blunkett (photo date not to be trusted!) Last week, Kath and John Blewitt hosted a visit from Mr. Blunkett at their home in order to talk about the work that SPRITE are currently doing - and plans for the future. The potential to involve Sheffield College with their local section of the River Don, as well as finding support and resources to tackle hotspots of fly-tipping were discussed. Both SPRITE and Trout in the Town welcome further developments in both of these areas. Since the areas of the river that SPRITE have taken responsibility for incorporate several constituencies, it is hoped that similar support can be generated across relevant parties and councillors.