River Rangers Project

Colne Valley Park covers 40 square miles hosting over 200km of river and canals with over 60 lakes. Watercourses are an important feature in the Colne supporting an amazing variety of wildlife while providing the public with drinking water as well as opportunities for business and recreation.

In the 21^st century our water system is under threat due to urbanisation, pollution events, high water consumption, spread invasive species as well as large scale development projects such as HS2 and Heathrow expansion.  During the Colne Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme the ‘River Ranger’ project was created looking for local residents to become River Rangers, to help, conserve, survey and champion their local watercourse.

River Rangers play a key role in monitoring and reporting a  small stretch of river, possible River Ranger activities include:

Monitoring and Reporting

• Wildlife and riverbank features provides vital information which adds to our local knowledge helping understand trend and changes.
• Water quality and river features, which provides important information to help improve river decision making at a local level.
• Reporting pollution incidents to ensuring a quick response vital for river health.
• Surveying river system for invasive species focusing on Himalayan Balsam and Floating Pennywort to help quick action to control spread of species.
• Fly tipping and littering which threatens local ecology as well as public enjoyment of the river system.

Additional

• Practical conservation activities to preserve and enhance local habitats.
• Nature and wellbeing walks
• Public engagement about the local river environment, including threats and solutions.

As a volunteer River Ranger you can choose how often you volunteer, for example 2 hours every month or once a year. Each individual will be fully supported by the Colne Valley Regional Park, who will provide training and equipment as well as offering river focused workshops, and social events. If you are interested please fill in this form to register your interest and contact Josh for further information: [email protected] or 07702 532746