The Devonshire Institute, Grassington, BD23 5AZ
Free admission – booking essential – email Victoria Benn, stating the number of tickets you require.
From peat to paddling – what constitutes a healthy river?
Want to debate or discover what can and should be done to improve the health of our rivers? Then please join us and our panel of experts who will be answering this question with specific reference to the challenge of maintaining the health of the river Wharfe for all wildlife and users …
Our Guest Speakers:
Prof Rick Battarbee, vice president of Friends of the Dales and Emeritus professor of environmental change at University College London, lives in Addingham where he co-ordinates the activities of the Addingham Environment Group. The title of Rick’s talk is ‘How polluted is the Wharfe?’
Dr Amy-Jane Beer, Our president, is a biologist, naturalist and writer with a longstanding love of rivers as explored in her recently published book, The Flow: river, water and wildness. The title of Amy-Jane’s talk is ‘Thinking like a river’
Dr Martin Christmas, has worked at the Environment Agency for more than 20 years and currently focuses on agriculture and water company regulation, groundwater protection and fisheries, biodiversity and geomorphology. The title of Martin’s talk is ‘Water management in Yorkshire, regulation and aspiration’
Prof Jonathan Grey, research and conservation officer for the Wild Trout Trust, an environmental charity which uses trout as an indicator species of waterbody health, will be uncovering ‘Wharfe woes and trout tales’
Charlotte Simons, senior catchment partnership officer for the Dales to Vale Rivers Network will be talking river health and the issues facing the River Wharfe and what can be done to improve them
Tim Thom, peat programme manager for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, will be looking at ‘wilder catchments’ and why we should give peat a chance
Chairing the event:
Mark Corner, vice president of Friends of the Dales and its chairman for four years until mid-2019. He is a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and is member champion for the natural environment.
Further information can be found on our events page.
No such thing as a free lunch? Join us for registration from 12 – 12.30 and enjoy a complimentary ‘pie and slice’ (although donations for this are welcome!)
All 16 – 25s can claim £25 towards their travel costs in attending the event. To find out more email: victoria.benn@friendsofthedales.org.uk