RRC Blog

Written by Will Barber, the RRC’s new local engagement and communications officer

On Thursday 9th of July, professionals from organisations across England, Scotland and Wales came together in Hexham, Northumberland for a workshop on Ecosystem services, facilitated by Jenny Mant from the River Restoration Centre. Participants were interested in how the ecosystem services approach could be applied, both within their work streams and the wider work of their organisations.

The aims of the day were to: understand what ecosystem...

On the 9th of June we held our second technical training course of the year in Manchester in the impressive National Cycling Centre. The day started with coffee and biscuits before Jenny Mant (RRC) gave an introduction to fluvial processes and river restoration, with the second presentation of the day, from Judy England (Environment Agency), detailing the ecological drivers and benefits of river restoration.

Following this, we started to introduce the afternoon’s site visit to the River Medlock. Sebastian Bentley...

Over the last two weeks, from the 21st April to the 1st of May, the Environment Agency hosted a programme of practical days, site visits, discussions and workshops in five UK river basin districts (nine catchments) across the UK. The event  - entitled ‘Working with Nature for People in River Catchments: UK Brazil Learning’ - involved numerous organizations including the RRC, Environment Agency, Aplysia Brazil, Institute of Fisheries Management, Queen Mary University of London, Norfolk Rivers Trust and Drainage Board, Ouse and Adur Rivers...

Having attended the first stakeholder group meeting with the newly formed Test and Itchen Catchment partnership, it was great to see them celebrating the first year with a 'Rivers Week' for partners. It was a good excuse to see more of the River Test too. The 'woods for water' afternoon was hosted at  Timsbury Fishing with a series of talks, first by staff from the South Downs National Park, the Woodlands Trust and the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, who co-host the Catchment Partnership with the Wessex Chalk Stream and Rivers Trust. These...

Jenny and I are currently involved in a very exciting project evaluating both technical aspects of river restoration and the management processes of the Cumbrian River Restoration Strategy (RRS). Last week we were up in the daffodil covered Lake District to visit four of the restoration projects included on the Cumbrian RRS. After some engaging discussions with representatives from the Environment Agency, Natural England and the three Rivers Trusts (South and West Cumbria, and Eden) we headed out to the first project on the River Gowen...

Natural Flood Risk Management Workshop, Belford 21st April 2015

(in conjunction with Arup and Newcastle University)

The River Restoration Centre held its first 2015 technical workshop in Belford. This afforded an exciting opportunity to visit the Environment Agency’s much acclaimed catchment scale natural flood management scheme upstream of the town. The course was attended by 30 delegates...