Tyne Rivers Trust has used a £2,500 grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund to run workshops that engage Tyneside residents and encourages them to look after their local rivers.
The Trust is the only environmental charity dedicated to looking after the River Tyne and its catchment area. The charity works to improve the wellbeing of the rivers, as well as the people living along them, through education, tackling pollution, and practical conservation.
The grant has been used to set up new schemes in Woolsington, together with the local Parish Council, and at the Schoolhouse Allotments in Ouseburn to help look after and improve the different parts of the Ouse Burn that run through each location.
As part of the schemes, river walks are being held to show residents and allotment holders what their respective stretches of river have to offer and what they can do to help look after them.
Water quality testing and invertebrate sampling activities are also being carried out to help assess the health of the local environment, and hidden wildlife cameras are being put in place to get a fuller idea of the animals, birds and insects that live in each location.
Chloe Hall, communications manager at the Tyne Rivers Trust, says: “The rivers that we work to protect and enhance belong to all of us, and we’re working to encourage more people across the region to get actively involved with looking after these priceless natural assets.
“Getting local people involved is the key to making a positive impact in local communities, and we’ve had a really positive reaction to this project in both locations, with volunteers of all ages signing up to be part of it.
“With such a wide area to cover and so much work to be done, there’s never any shortage of activities to which we can allocate budgets, so getting Newcastle Building Society’s support for this work means we’ll be able to get on with reaping the benefits of it far sooner than we otherwise could have.”
Download the press release here (PDF, 111kB).
Image caption: L-R Donna Stubbs, our Community Manager, and her daughter learning more about the Ouse Burn from Simone Saville, My Tyne Project Officer at Tyne Rivers Trust, and her daughter.
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