A partnership of local fishing clubs and land owners has formed to support the Riverfly Project in South Gloucestershire. This is an Anglers’ initiative to monitor the water quality on the Little River Avon (LRA). A partnership between the Berkeley Estate Fishing Syndicate and the Charfield Angling Association have been helped with a Wessex Watermark Award of £750 to start training volunteers to monitor the population of invertebrates at a number of sites along the river. Some of the volunteers will meet Fiona Bowles – Wessex Water’s Water Resources Investigations Project Manager – on Tuesday 23 November when she presents them with their winning Watermark cheque.
Anglers are in a unique position to assess and monitor the health of the water they fish on. The Riverfly Project provides a simple monitoring technique, which anglers will use to detect any changes in river water quality. It will also put the anglers in direct communication with the Environment Agency and this combined routine monitoring will make sure that water quality is checked more widely and alert the EA should any changes be detected.
“The Riverfly Project is spearheading an initiative which allows anglers to take action that will help conserve the river environment,” said Toby Jefferies of the partnership. “Anglers have a major interest in the river environment and are in an ideal position to monitor the health of the watercourses they fish. We have had a very enthusiastic response and the partnership is delighted to have this support from Wessex Water which will help set the project up, enabling it to become a significant barometer of the river’s water quality.”
The Watermark Award provides funds for environmental projects within the Wessex Water area. Now in its seventeenth year, it has supported over 600 environmental initiatives. Organised by The Conservation Foundation, all projects are judged by a panel chaired by its President – David Bellamy.
