Wyre Rivers Trust General Manager, aiming to improve the Wyre and its tributaries. Cricket badger and angler when time allows. Tweets are own views.
North West, England
Joined September 2016
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Thomas Myerscough retweeted
Brock & Calder Landscape Recovery. Excellent to see such great vision behind action by farmers & estates from source to sea in the Wyre catchment, to slow flow & improve water via restoring soil health, protecting peat & creating habitat, & with all that helping Nature to recover
In the midst of all this upland work, we were also delivering some lowland NFM in the shape of wetlands on the Fylde Coast. Each of these projects store lots of water during times of peak flow. Thanks to @natural_course for all the support with both upland NFM and lowland NFM.
The benefits of all this work are clear to see, improved habitats, water quality, water quantity connectivity and biodiversity. There is lots more to come in the Wyre Catchment as we embark on our next round of projects. Cant wait to get stuck in.
Probably forgotten to mention lots of people but here we go, big thanks to - @theriverstrust @spaniel_fan @IFMFish @SimonWightman @triodosuk @wyrecouncil @EnvAgencyNW @unitedutilities @wetland_eng @h_r_marshall. As well as Phil Robson and all our trustees in my time at WRT.
Today marks 10 years since I joined the Wyre Rivers Trust, as its Science Projects Officer. For my first two years I was seconded to WRT from @RibbleTrust with solid advice from @JackSpees n co to get me up and running. A great example of early partnership working!
Example above shows the use of recycled Christmas trees to help prevent erosion on a very rugged stretch of our Calder. Still going strong 6 years later. Here are some other examples; baffles, deflectors and the odd bit of fishing. Thanks to @NWFishEA for support via FIP.
2016 proved to be pretty fortuitous, meeting @ProfJGrey and @WildTroutTrust with whom we have delivered some mega projects. Fish passage, habitat creation, bio-engineering, monitoring - all in (mainly) a days work, mostly fueled by pies and pastries.
Thanks to the Catchment Partnership Action Fund, we also started to test the waters with soft engineering approaches to erosion on heavily modified brooks. Not ideal, but better than someone coming along and filling the gap with bricks or concrete blocks. Oh and more fencing!
Onwards and upwards from there we began to develop larger projects like Tidal Wyre, which saw investment into 10 lowland farms to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture. Concrete, gutters, middens, fencing, and wetlands - lots more to learn
Our first project was the creation of a riparian buffer strip. A steep learning curve with lots of procurement, permitting and pondering to be done. With help from partners we managed to deliver 1.25km of new riparian habitat. Thanks to @SimonBennettEA for all his support!
My first contract was 6 months, part time, so that helped to focus the mind. It must have worked, I am still here 10 years later with a team of 8 at the Wyre Rivers Trust, which will double again by June 24. For posterity, I thought I would take a look back at some highlights..
We (WRT) are now advertising for a Fisheries Conservation Officer. I know there are a lot of fishy people on twitter, so please share far and wide. A great opportunity for someone. (You might also get your hands on a few of these beauties!) #FishSci wyreriverstrust.org/vacancie…
Thomas Myerscough retweeted
Great project led by @TM_WRT. My image: vehicles parked on fence-line 'to be' + impact of sheep up to the channel. EA image already shows benefits of excluding livestock. Augmented tree planting for shade etc, some instream woody features - letting the brook do its thing now
As part of our Fisheries Improvement Programme 🐟🐟🐟we have been working with @WyreRiversTrust & @WildTroutTrust to improve water quality and habitats for a range of species including brown trout & eel at Barton Brook, Preston
Read all about it here👇👇gov.uk/government/news/35-mi…
ALT soft engineered bank protections installed at Barton Brook, Preston as part of the Fisheries Improvement Programme
Thomas Myerscough retweeted
Pls RT: @ENVISIONDTP #PhD - winter #zooplankton community structure & #foodwebs #SIA
Lake & experimental mesocosm fieldwork, #climatechange, global database, cool tools, cool supervisors (@SteveThackeray @DrEllie_Mackay @HFeuchtmayr) and me!
findaphd.com/phds/project/in…
#GradSchEnv
Thomas Myerscough retweeted
On with #BetterBecks project walkovers, earning more @WildTroutTrust #TroutInTheTown stripes. Given frequency of barriers to @fishmigration (1 every ~257m!), work to do!
Fab leafpacks for @Riverflies but dubious water quality... oh and #INNS
@aireriverstrust @YorksWildlife
Thomas Myerscough retweeted
Cracking day running fishy field skills module for @LancsUniLEC #ecology #zoology students deprived of opps by C-19. Plus contributing to #longtermdata started by @MSc_FAME, @AmyBlaker etc.
Chance to learn about @theriverstrust careers via @TM_WRT & work of @WildTroutTrust too
