Giving a helping hand to our riverside habitats

The Ribble catchment, which has recently taken responsibility for the Douglas area. Although this area has always technically been part of our catchment we have only started work here this year.
Our catchment, which has recently expanded to include the Douglas area. Although this has always technically been part of our catchment we have only started work here this year.

Thanks to the media we’re learning more about the threats to our planet, our environment, and our climate- but did you know there are problems even in your local rivers? Our area covers parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire with some of the least amount of tree cover in the country, less than 25% of our rivers are classed as being in good health, there are over 1000 barriers which are preventing the movement of wildlife and some large areas of habitat are in such poor health they cannot provide the homes for wildlife that they should be.

At Ribble Rivers Trust we know that we need big changes. But big changes can be brought about by lots of small changes adding together; a little like a huge jigsaw where every piece is a small but vital improvement.

Our jigsaw pieces so far have included removing or resolving 58 river blocking barriers such as dams and weirs, restoring 640 hectares of peat moorland, planting 150,000 trees, creating 180 hectares of woodland, and improving a total of 600km of river. This means mammals, birds, fish, and insects are on the rise in many areas, more and more habitats are reverting to their natural state, and issues such as climate change are very slowly being mitigated.

This isn’t all, our projects mean we are also;

  • running river clean ups
  • working with farmers to improve farm infrastructure and land management practices
  • creating wetlands and leaky dams
  • educating children and young people in schools
  • removing invasive species
  • helping to fight pollution
  • monitoring our catchments health

Our pieces of the jigsaw are adding up, and there are ways you can help us too!

This Christmas you can give a Present for the Planet and donate to us, helping raise money for more habitat improvements. Without public support we wouldn’t have been able to achieve any of our work, and now more than ever it’s important that we work together to improve our planet, one habitat improvement at a time.

Donate now

 

 

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