News
Stream Clearance at Rainton Burn
Posted on : 16.01.2012
Saturday 14th January saw our first volunteer activity of 2012, and what an impressing turn out we had! 24 volunteers/residents turned up to help clear their section of stream.
In a combined effort with the Rainton Green Group and Durham Wildlife Trust we managed to pick up over 50 sacks of rubbish - and that doesn't count items too big to put in sacks!
We'd also like to thank Sunderland City Council for supplying the litter pickers, tabbards and rubbish sacks and coming to remove all the rubbish during the day.
If you're interested in coming along to future events, we'll be planning our summer volunteer activities over the next few months, so don't forget to check the events page later in the year.
Hedgehogs to rescue fish
Posted on : 12.12.2011
Officers will be placing 12 fish refuges, called hedgehogs, in the River Wear near Prebends Bridge in Durham next week, to create safe places for the fish to hide from predators.
This will be the first time that the hedgehogs, designed and used widely in lakes in the USA, will be tried in a river in the UK.
(Read the full article)
Trust wins volunteer and community engagement award
Posted on : 11.11.2011
Wear Rivers Trust, trustee and director, Peter Nailon was awarded the volunteer and community engagement award by The Rivers Trust at this year’s autumn conference held in Bulith Wells with the Wye and Usk Foundation.
The awards ceremony was held to honour the hard work being carried out by Rivers Trusts all over the country and project officer Steve Hudson, was on hand to accept the award from Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith OBE (Director of the Wye and Usk Foundation) on behalf of Peter. “Receiving the award on behalf of Peter, in front of senior Environment Agency staff and directors of other Rivers Trusts was a huge honour for me, because it provided the whole Trust with recognition of the hard work we have all put in over the past few years” said Steve. “Peter has been a massive help and without him, the trust would not be where it is today”.
Peter Nailon agreed to join the Trust with a commitment of one meeting every quarter but has given up much of his time to assist the project officer and the board of directors with financial and structural organisation. As well as holding down a full time job and building churches at Beamish Museum, Peter still somehow manages to find time to attend meetings, carry out site visits and supervise project officer activities.
Peter’s dedication and hard work is an inspiration to everyone who works at the trust and as long as he is around, the trust will continue to deliver conservation projects to enhance the River Wear for people and wildlife to enjoy for many years to come.
Stunning success for Wear Rivers Trust first electro fishing survey
Posted on : 11.11.2011
Over the summer the Wear Rivers Trust (WRT) completed an “Awards for All” funded project to train nine volunteers from local angling clubs to assist them in collecting crucial fish count data using a technique known as electro fishing. 
Volunteers completed two training courses (basic and intermediate) and are now qualified in carrying out surveys using electro fishing equipment. The survey team consists of nine volunteers from Chester-le-Street, Ferryhill, Bishop Auckland, Witton-le-Wear and Wolsingham angling clubs.
29 sites were surveyed between Chester-le-Street and the top of Weardale, with tributaries including the Lumley Park Burn, Cong Burn, Old Durham Beck, Linburn, Bedburn, Waskerley and more.
Local angling clubs were very supportive of the project and provided the local knowledge needed to access some of the sites. The survey enabled them to get involved with monitoring the health of their local river and provided them with a great opportunity to find out how the river ecosystem works and what can be done to sustain a healthy environment for the future. 
Information collected during this survey will provide crucial evidence for future project bids and will allow WRT monitoring improvements made through their various conservation projects. One of the major issues on the Wear is the presence of in stream obstructions such as weirs, gauging stations and bridge footings which prevent upstream movement of fish to important spawning habitat. Much of the data supported our argument that these structures reduce recruitment of all fish species and further investigations will be carried out to address this.
Overall the survey was very positive with all but two sites having healthy fish populations. The most productive site produced over two hundred fish over a thirty metre stretch including salmon, trout, bullhead and stoneloach.
The most improved rivers
Posted on : 09.09.2011
At the end of August the Environment Agency released its list of the 10 most improved rivers – the waterways that have shrugged off their industrial past to become havens for wildlife, walkers and anglers once again. And it urged people to take a walk along the river near to them to see the rivers’ regeneration for themselves.
The transformation of these rivers has been
achieved thanks to thousands of habitat improvement projects, tighter
regulation of polluting industries and work with farmers, businesses
and water companies to reduce pollution and improve water quality.
The River Wear was singled out for special mention in the list.
Free Riverfly training for river enthusiasts
Posted on : 11.07.2011
The Wear River Trust will be holding a free training event for volunteers who would like to get involved in the Riverfly Partnership Project. The Riverfly Partnership is a national initiative set up to encourage people to get down to the river and assist in monitoring both invertebrate life and water quality.
The training event will provide a learning experience for volunteers who may already spend a lot of time on the river banks and have often wondered what lurks beneath or how they might be able to help protect our magnificent river. The course will give volunteers the skills and knowledge to be able to identify freshwater invertebrates to a basic level and learn how they can be used to monitor the quality of the water.
On completion the volunteers will be allocated their own set of monitoring equipment and a survey site to monitor each month. The site will be local to the volunteers and agreed with the Environment Agency to ensure the data collected will be useful if a pollution incident was to occur, as this monitoring initiative has been proven successful in cleaning up polluters acts!
A date has not been set for this course, but if you would like to register, please email Steve Hudson on steve.hudson@wear-rivers-trust.org.uk or telephone 01913 016931 and a date will be arranged to suit everyone. Spaces are limited and will be available on a first come first serve basis. The Course will run from 9:30am til 4:00pm and be run from the Wear Rivers Trust head office at the Low Barns Nature Reserve, Witton-le-Wear. All food and drink will be provided and the day will be split into both classroom and out in the field sessions.
For more information check out our new website at www.wear-rivers-trust.org.uk and the riverfly partnership site at www.riverflies.org.
Electro fishing
Posted on : 11.07.2011
Our first annual electro fishing survey will commence this summer using local anglers and river enthusiasts. During the last two months all volunteers have go completed vigorous training courses and are now ready to collect this vital data.
click for more information
Lumley Park Burn gets a good bashing!
Posted on : 11.07.2011
Wednesday 9th July, saw the first of many balsam bashing events along the Lumley Park Burn and provided the volunteers with a great opportunity to vent their frustrations out on this highly invasive alien! The valley located between Bournmoor and Castle Dene is dominated with pink flowers at this time of year, so a two hour balsam bash was organised to attempt to bring the plant under control. Himilayan Balsam spreads by exploding seed pods, which spread the seed up to 7m, so with this in mind we started our balsam removal at the top and worked our way downstream. During the two hour session, we managed clear an area of approximately 150m x 10m along the river bank, which was a big achievement considering the man power to balsam ratio! The event also highlighted how big the balsam problem was, not only on this burn, but the whole catchment, so we need all the help we can get to truly make a difference. The seed bank survives for over 3 years, so this management technique needs to be implemented year on year to reduce the coverage of balsam.
The next balsam bash will be held on Wednesday 3rd August at 6:00pm, so if you would like more details of where we shall be meeting please contact Steve Hudson via email steve.hudson@wear-rivers-trust.org.uk.
Cong Burn Rock Ramp
Posted on : 11.07.2011
The Cong Burn rock ramp is the first major fish easement project which has been undertaken by the trust and will contribute to enhancing fish populations throughout the whole river. The project was completed in mid June and will provide access to the Cong Burn for all species for fish.
more information on the work carried out
Animal Magic
Posted on : 27.06.2011
Brilliant blue skies,
lovely setting and lots of people to chat with - a perfect day, in
fact.
As we anticipated a younger age group today our floating
crafts made another popular appearance. So much so that we had to
borrow some additional materials from the WWT to keep up with
demand!
We also got to talk to parents (grandparents, uncles,
aunties and various other relations) who brought their kids along to
enjoy a great family day out. With the appearance of the two Asian
Short-clawed Otters at Washington we got to highlight our own, native
otters which also inhabit the River Wear nearby.
I'd like to thank the
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust for their hard work in organising the
event. I'm sure everyone there enjoyed it as much as I did.
Logo Competition Winner
Posted on : 27.06.2011
After lots of deliberation we finally have a logo competition winner.
The winner was Hannah Renshaws from Hermitage School in CHester-le-Street.
To me the logo says "clean, simple, full of life and activity all
centred around water". I like the reflection idea which also gives the
impression of calm, tranquility and a good place to be, as well as the
fact that what happens on the land is reflected in the river condition.
Durham Regatta
Posted on : 13.06.2011
We had a great weekend
at Durham Regatta this month. With over 400 races taking place in the
River Wear and our very own mini regatta in our portable 'river'.
With over 20 entries for our mini-regatta, the competition was very close and the person with the fastest time was presented the Wear River Rocks!! Trophy. The winner, by less than 0.09 of a second, was Sam Parrish from Durham, who recorded an amazing 4.87 seconds for his hand-made duck to complete the 1.8m long course.
We had lots of enquiries about the work that we do and the wildlife that is found on the river, so it really was a worthwhile event from that point of view as well.
We'd like to thank Debbie, Andrew and the whole Durham Regatta organisers for all the hard work they put into organising the event.
Logo Competition deadline extension
Posted on : 27.05.2011
As the schools are away on half-term break after the bank holiday we've extended the deadline until Monday 6th June. This is to allow the schools to collect the entries and send them together.
Judging is scheduled to take place during that week.
Fish Migration Day
Posted on : 18.05.2011
We had a good day at the Fish Migration event at Roker, talking to interested people about issues which relate to the river and promoting the Wear Rivers Trust. Most people had not heard of either the Fish Migration Day before, or of the trust either, so this was a great way to spread the message.
While numbers weren't quite as high as anticipated we still have a reasonable number of participants, enough to make the event worthwhile.
It was suggested we re-run a similar event on the 21st August in conjunction with the RNLI at the Harbour Day event, so watch out for further updates.
We raised the grand total of £8.09 pence of which £4.05 went to the RNLI.
New look web site
Posted on : 01.05.2011
One of the aims behind this site is to allow you more involvement in what you'd like to see and do on the River Wear. So to do this we've added sections to help you get involved. There's the opportunity to join our volunteers, come along to various family events along the entire length of the river, help report important species and any problems that you find. You'll also be able to subscribe to our email list.
We've added sections for children which includes eye-spy fact sheets and even online games.
We'll be adding to the site fairly regularly over the summer, so don't forget to come back and see how we're doing.