Wild Trout Trust; Sheffield Rivers Conclave…
It never ceases to amaze me what a group of like minded people can do when they put their minds to it!
I also continue to be in awe of the Wild Trout Trust who have such a dedicated team of enthusiasts.
Organised by Paul Gaskell from the Wild Trout Trust as part of the Trout in the Town initiative - the Sheffield Rivers Conclave put together a series of presentations on River Management and Invasive Species awareness (given by yours truly). Additional presentations were given by Denise Ashton on funding and by Gideon Reeve on the Trout in the Classroom initiative.
At the end of it all I found myself wondering what more I could be doing? I feel numb at times from bashing my head against a brick wall - telling people about invasive species when each and every year the problems get worse…
When is somebody going to listen!
Every day I drive past rivers which are being choked to death by Himalayan balsam, Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed…I write letters and nobody responds! I have even offered to have works carried out free of charge - again nobody responds…(so I’m not doing that anymore!)..
I’m thinking maybe we need more legislation??
I’m sorry …but unless something is done the country will be over run…and we won’t have any natural rivers or native vegetation to leave for future generations.
Maybe it’s because we are a ‘want it now’ society and we don’t care about the future??
Well - at least the Trout in the Town project is a little glimmer of light at the end of the invasive weed tunnel. The people who attended the conference listened and seemed to take on board the issues regarding Alien species - so maybe at last I have found my audience.
It’s a start anyway.
