Events

The Lune Rivers Trust’s Auction of Promises will be held on Friday 23rd November 2012 at Scarthwaite Hotel, Caton.  The previous auction, in 2009, raised over 150 pledges and attracted a great turnout on the night.  This time we pledge that there will be parking space for everyone!

We are delighted to announce that the Lune Rivers Trust Express will take to the tracks again on Saturday 8th September 2012. By popular demand York and Scarborough will be our destinations – you choose where you get off!  We are again indebted to Pat Marshall and all at West Coast Railways for their continued support. There will be a full Pullman dining-car restaurant service laid on and first and standard class tickets. Prices remain as in 2011 Premier Dining £135, First Class £69 and Standard Class £49. Further details will be added to this website.  To book, telephone West Coast Railways on 01524 732100.

The next meeting of the Lune Rivers Trust – its Annual General Meeting – will be held on Tuesday March 20th in Claughton Village Hall.  All Members of the Trust are very welcome at this meeting.  The officers will present their annual reports, after which the necessary sustenance will be provided (Sarah has even said she’ll bake a cake).

Claughton Village Hall is on the north side of the A683. Travelling from the Lancaster direction, it is just after the SWS factory and before a row of houses on the left. Travelling from the Hornby direction, it is 200 yards past the Fenwick Arms, on the right.

The agenda will follow.

On Saturday January 21st Bekka Corrie-Close of the CFINNS (Cumbria Freshwater Invasive Non-Native Species) Initiative held a half-day training session on aquatic and riparian invasive non-native species identification for Lune Rivers Trust members.  We were helped to identify Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam, giant hogweed, Canadian waterweed, Nuttall’s waterweed (which are all present within the Lune watershed), giant knotweed, hybrid knotweed, New Zealand pigmyweed, American skunk cabbage, American signal crayfish (which are all present in Cumbria), parrot’s feather, floating pennywort, zebra mussel, killer shrimp, water fern, floating water primrose, curly waterweed, Carolina water-shield and Chinese mitten crab (which are all present elsewhere in England) – and to distinguish them from native species, such as touch-me-not balsam (shown above).

West Coast Railways Ltd. once again supported us on Saturday 3rd September 2011 when the Lune Rivers Trust Express set out again, this time for Shrewsbury. By chance it was the weekend of the Shrewsbury street festival which was much enjoyed by all.

As always the trip was well supported, the catering superb and we were delighted to receive a cheque for £4,000 from West Coast Railways. In addition to our normal raffle Pat Marshall and West Coast Railways again donated Lune Rivers Trust souvenirs to sell which raised a further £947. The sale of these souvenirs will continue to support our website in the future.  For further information on West Coast Railways visit www.westcoastrailways.co.uk.

See a video of the steam train.

In May Sarah Littlefield and Debbie Hardwick represented LRT at the ART Spring Seminar hosted by the Ballinderry River Enhancement Association in Cookstown, Northern Ireland.

The theme of this seminar was “Turning Policy into Practice: the role of ‘wet feet’ organisations” and it was an opportunity to hear of other Rivers Trusts’ projects and to make contacts for future partnership projects. (more…)

In January we held a social evening for farmers and landowners in the Tebay area. We gave a talk on the work of the Lune Rivers Trust, past, present and future, the species which are being helped by our projects and the opportunities afforded by the Pinpoint initiative to look at ways in which farmers could save money whilst at the same time helping us to reduce diffuse water pollution from agriculture. Many of those present have already worked with us in the past to create habitat buffer zones by fencing the banks of the streams, thus limiting stock access and reducing bankside erosion. We then served supper and talked informally to people and discussed plans for the future. Our thanks go to Ross Cherington of West Country Rivers Trust and Paul Arkle of FWAG for their help and support. (more…)

With over 150 pledges and a great turnout on the night this year’s Auction of Promises at the Scarthwaite Hotel, Caton on November 20th was a huge success, raising over £11,000 which we will be able to use to attract further matchfunding for our projects. Our thanks go to all who supported us again so generously with their pledges and bids. We would also like to apologise to anyone who was unable to park and had to leave – we will address this matter next time!

In October our secretary joined other rivers trust representatives in Cornwall on an introductory training course to identify diffuse water-pollution from agriculture, a joint project between the Association of Rivers Trusts and the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI). The course was part classroom based at Duchy College, Stoke Climsland and partly practical farm visits and was run jointly by Dr. Laurence Couldrick and Ross Cherrington of Westcountry Rivers Trust. Hopefully when we are working with farmers and landowners on future projects we will also be able to offer some of this free advice. In April 2010 there will be a follow-up Advanced Course designed to provide us with an in-depth knowledge of the diffuse pollution problems and potential solutions in terms of economic and environmental savings. (more…)

On 7th September Sarah Littlefield and Debbie Hardwick represented LRT at the ART Autumn Seminar. There the Minister for Marine and Natural Environment Huw Irranca-Davies formally announced the DEFRA grant of £1,750,000 to the Association of Rivers Trusts, of which £150,000 comes to the Lune Rivers Trust towards the completion of 3 fish-easements at Eskew Beck Ford, Haverah Beck and Winterscales Farm and towards the investigation of the feasibility of installing elver passes and the trialling of the same on the main weirs on the River Lune. This was also an opportunity to hear of other Trusts’ projects and to make contacts for future partnership projects. The seminar closed with a tour of the London Wetland Centre (where the seminar was held) and the Awards Dinner. (more…)