Rambling About Rivers

The new year provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on how far we have come and look ahead to future aspirations. This episode, Emily is joined by The Rivers Trust CEO Mark Lloyd, to discuss the formation and growth of The Rivers Trust movement with Arlin Rickard (former CEO of The Rivers Trust) and Ian Gregg (our current president and past Chairman of Greggs). Both Arlin and Ian were instrumental in the creation of The Rivers Trust.

In this episode, Emily and Dan are joined by Steve Edmonds, Eva Bishop, and their Rivers Trust colleague Seren Patterson. Steve is the trees and woodland advisor in the Southwest of England for the National Trust, Eva works as head of communication and education for the Beaver Trust, and Seren is the woodlands for water project lead at The Rivers Trust.

In this episode, Emily and Dan join their colleagues Gabriella Ghelani and Alisdair Naulls. Gabs is one of The Rivers Trust's Project Communications Officers, and she's been living a low-waste lifestyle since 2019. She's so serious about reducing plastic in the environment that she set up her own business selling plastic-free alternatives, as well as offering a mobile refill service for household products. Ali is the Engagement & Communities Lead on Plastic Pollution, and is a pro when it comes to sparking behavioural change. The team chat about how to cut down on plastic at its source, and how to tackle it once it's already in the environment. 

If you've been debating taking the plunge into a lower-waste lifestyle, you'll want to give this one a listen!

In today's episode, we talk to Olympic silver medallist Keri-anne Payne and founder of Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Simon Griffiths about all things outdoor swimming! We mine their years of experience and knowledge on open water swimming on a variety subjects from how to prepare for long swims to the mental health benefits of outdoor swimming.

Buy Simon's book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/swim-wild-and-free-9781399400404/

Order Outdoor Swimmer's Trends Report: https://outdoorswimmer.com/news/coming-soon-trends-in-outdoor-swimming-2022

Sign up for Keri-anne's swimming courses: https://straightlineswimming.com/

Wild open water app: https://wildopenwater.com/

The latest episode of Rambling About Rivers is a celebration of International Women's Day where we talk to Amira Patel, founder of the Wanderlust Women - a hiking and adventure group for Muslim women - which aims to break down the barriers and stereotypes of the niqab and challenge misconceptions of Muslim women.

Today, Emily and Jayne pass the mic to Amira (amira_thewanderlust on Instagram) who talks about what inspired her to start the amazing Wanderlust Women group, the way reclaiming green spaces as places for Muslim women has helped create a welcoming community that allows women to express their passion for nature, and how she developed her own love for the outdoors, recognising it as a space of healing and imaginative exploration. Amira's excitement and energy has helped build up a group which started off as a singular pursuit and grew as people gravitated towards green and blue spaces during the pandemic to what it is today. 

The latest episode of Rambling About Rivers is all about the return of the Twaite Shad on the River Severn. This iconic species was a common sight in the Severn over 100 years ago, but the construction of a large number of weirs led to populations collapsing. 

Today, Dan and Jayne are joined by Rosie Croggon, Education Officer at Severn Rivers Trust and Charles Crundwell, Senior Technical Specialist in Fisheries at the Environment Agency. Rosie and Charles help us to explore the history of this iconic species, and look at some of the groundbreaking work they have carried out to improve the migratory journey for the Shad fish through their Unlocking the Severn project. This partnership project sees Severn Rivers Trust working with Canal and River Trust, Environment Agency and Natural England, with the goal of restoring 158 miles of river!

How much do you know about sewage in rivers? 

You might remember a previous episode where we spoke to Anneka France from our data team about the Sewage Map they produced, which showed the frequency of untreated sewage being released into rivers. Give episode 9 a listen if you want to catch up. 

Recently, we updated the Sewage Map with 2020 data - so Anneka's back to give us the low-down on the data behind the map.

This time, Dan and Jayne are also joined by Christine Colvin, Director of Partnerships and Communications at The Rivers Trust. They discuss the immense work which went into producing the map, and look at the bigger picture of sewage pollution in rivers.

To view our Sewage Map, click here.

"It's like getting to know a person, but one who can't speak. We felt we had to be advocates for [the] river"

This week, we join Dan and Jayne in conversation with Alison Archer from the Pymmes BrookERS: a group of community volunteers working together to restore their local waterways. Working in conjunction with our local Trust Thames21, the Pymmes BrookERS have made a huge impact on their local environment. The creation of Broomfield Park Wetland—a gorgeous, biodiverse wetland in the centre of Enfield—has been one of their crowning achievements. Tune in to find out more about how communities can come together to restore the natural world.  

This podcast follows on from episode 8: Why wetlands? You don't need to have heard episode 8 to enjoy this episode, but it provides more background if you are interested. 

At The Rivers Trust, we have been stirring some 💩 about what is REALLY going into our rivers. In June, we kicked off our new campaign, Together For Rivers, to introduce designated bathing water standards into well-used rivers across the UK 🏊

To launch the campaign, our incredible Data Team created an interactive map to locate where and how often sewage was being released into rivers in England. One of the data minds behind this map is Anneka France, GIS Analyst at The Rivers Trust. In the latest episode of #RamblingAboutRivers, we join Jayne and Dan in conversation with Anneka to find out more about sewage pollution and talk about the next steps.

Our local Trusts play a huge role in the creation and improvement of wetlands. Last year, Thames21 played a part in developing a number of urban wetlands in and around London. They're not stopping there, though, and have plans to create even more wetlands around the capital. So why the big push on wetlands—and what does this mean for the environment and community?

Dan and Jayne speak to John Bryden, Senior Programmes Manager at Thames21.  We speak about the wetlands the Trust has created, and find out more about the process of sculpting an entirely new habitat. In addition, we take a closer look at the benefits that wetlands can deliver - ranging from improved biodiversity to reduced flood risk. There are a number of challenges associated with carrying out this type of work in urban wetlands, and we find out more about these from John.

In part two of this podcast, we hope to speak to the community volunteers involved in one of these projects to find out more about how it has impacted their lives. Stay tuned!