Eden Rivers Trust has received a £138,589 funding boost from SITA Trust to conserve the native crayfish in the Eden valley.
SITA Trust provides funding through the Landfill Communities Fund. Funding is available for community and environmental groups to carry out a range of improvement projects.
The funding allocated to Eden Rivers Trust will enable them to carry out work on the Hoff and Helm Becks near Appleby to benefit native crayfish. These becks support good numbers of native crayfish in some areas, but also have areas with none. Work will include riverside fencing, tree planting, and anything to reduce silt and pollution in the river.
Protecting and increasing the crayfish populations in these rivers will help to keep this lobster-like creature in the Eden valley. The River Eden is one of the last remaining strongholds for the native white-clawed crayfish. It is rapidly disappearing from rivers across the county because of the invasive American signal crayfish and the disease it carries.
The American signal crayfish was originally brought to this country to be farmed for food. It has since escaped or been accidentally or deliberately introduced into UK waters where it has become extremely widespread. It is larger and more aggressive than the native variety and ousts its cousin where ever they occur together. This is made worse by the crayfish plague it carries, which does not affect the signal crayfish but is lethal to the native crayfish.
Signal crayfish also destabilise banks with their burrows, prey on fish eggs and young, and are generally bad news for other river wildlife! There are currently no signal crayfish in the Eden catchment, but should they arrive there is no way of eradicating them.
Part of this new project is to identify “safe havens” for native crayfish. These are areas where they will be safe from American signal crayfish or crayfish plague should they arrive in the River Eden or its tributaries. Safe havens may be ponds or lakes, or sections of river with a large natural barrier to stop crayfish moving upstream, such as the water fall Rutter Force on the Hoff Beck near Appleby.
Simon Johnson, Director of Eden Rivers Trust, said, “We are delighted to receive this funding from SITA Trust which will help retain the native crayfish in the Eden Valley. Anything we do for crayfish will greatly improve our local rivers for the fish, mammals, birds and insects associated with them.”
The SITA Trust funded project will continue the work carried out on native crayfish conservation by Eden Rivers Trust in recent years in the Penrith and Appleby areas. The Trust is extremely grateful to all land owners along the Rivers Leith and Lyvennet and the Hoff and Helm Becks who have allowed them to survey for crayfish on their land. Many people visited have stories of catching crayfish in their local beck as children, and are sad when they have disappeared.
A large number of dedicated volunteers have also been involved in the survey work, and the Trust would not now know the location and size of the crayfish populations in these rivers without their help.
Anyone interested in improving their section of the Hoff or Helm Beck or their tributaries for wildlife should contact Joanne Backshall at Eden Rivers Trust on 01768 866788.
