PRESS RELEASE: Ribble Rivers Trust wins national wild salmon conservation award to deliver community-led nature-based solutions
Ribble Rivers Trust wins national wild salmon conservation award to deliver community-led nature-based solutions- protecting endangered species while reducing flood risk
The Ribble Rivers Trust has won a prestigious new national award for wild salmon conservation, supporting a community-led river restoration project that will both protect an endangered British species and help reduce local flood risk.
Launched this autumn, ‘The Orri’ is a new community-based salmon conservation award from the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (UK) (NASF UK), named in honour of its internationally respected founder, Orri Vigfússon.
The Lancashire-based charity was selected as the inaugural winner for its project ‘Hodder Together’, which focuses on restoring salmon habitat in the River Hodder while actively involving local communities, schools and anglers.
Jack Spees, CEO of Ribble Rivers Trust, said: “We’re delighted to have won this competitive award. The £10,000 Orri grant, alongside NASF’s support to crowdfund a further £10,000, will allow us to deliver real impact on multiple levels.
We’ll be engaging local schoolchildren in citizen science surveys, supporting apprentices in hands-on river restoration, and working with local anglers to monitor salmon spawning after new gravel is added.”
The project will install berms (small in channel “shelfs”) and introduce additional gravel to create riffles (places where salmon spawn) and pools (for juvenile salmon to grow) into the river. These features slow water flow, create vital spawning habitat for salmon, and- when delivered at scale- help reduce flood risk.
“As well as improving conditions for salmon, these nature-based solutions can help mitigate the increased flooding we’ve seen over the last 50 years,” added Spees. “That’s crucial for communities here in the Ribble Valley and across the UK.”
Salmon in crisis
Wild Atlantic salmon in the UK were upgraded to Endangered status by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2023, due to pressures including river barriers, pollution, habitat degradation and rising water temperatures.
NASF (UK) launched The Orri award to support local river communities to reconnect with salmon and take practical action to restore degraded waterways to healthy ecosystems.
Robert Sloss, Chairman of NASF (UK), said: “The good news is that community-led, in-river initiatives like this one really do work. We see improvements quite quickly in the number of salmon redds and in the number of adult fish returning from the sea to spawn.”
What happens next
The Hodder Together project will begin practical work in late spring 2026, with a crowdfunding campaign launching in February and March to raise the remaining funds.
Charlotte Ireland Pope, Fundraising Officer at Ribble Rivers Trust, said: “Winning The Orri award is hugely exciting. It gives us a proof of concept that we can scale up across the wider catchment for the benefit of both river health and local communities.
Involving local people builds skills, supports environmental careers, and delivers wellbeing benefits from spending time outdoors in the beautiful Ribble Valley. To everyone reading this locally- watch this space. We’ll need your help in 2026.”
To follow the progress of the Hodder Together Orri Award project, supporters can subscribe to the newsletter at nasf.org.uk or contact Ribble Rivers Trust directly.
Notes to editors
Our Vision
A world where salmon thrive in rivers that are valued and nurtured by riverine communities.
About NASF (UK)
The North Atlantic Salmon Fund (UK) supports local conservation projects that restore salmon rivers while inspiring people to value this iconic species. Together, we can restore our waterways and secure the sight of leaping salmon in Britain for future generations.
- British salmon numbers have declined by around 70% in the past 40 years, prompting urgent action to prevent extinction.
- NASF (UK) launched in September 2025 to support community-based salmon conservation across Britain.
- The inaugural Orri Award 2025 provides £10,000 in match funding, alongside media and strategic support to crowdfund further project costs.
- The award is named after Orri Vigfússon, the legendary Icelandic conservationist credited with preventing the extinction of North Atlantic salmon in the 1980s through bold, practical action.
