- WRMP Resources Page – Field Trips, Links & Downloads
Thank you for participating in the Louth Leader Partnership Water Resources Management Training Programme. We hope you are enjoying the course so far. As promised, We are writing to you to confirm the dates for the two field trips and also for the small streams training day, which includes a demonstration of how freshwater invertebrates can be used to assess water quality and how to identify the key indicator species.
Ballinderry Rivers Trust – http://ballinderryriver.org/
Field Trip 1 – Saturday, 16th November 2019
Our first field trip is to Ballinderry Trust, County Antrim, where we will meet the Director, Mark Horton. Mark has worked extensively with community and farming groups in the Ballinderry catchment and has achieved great progress in building awareness of the importance of good water quality within a rurally based community. He will describe some of their more successful projects and we will also visit some of the river enhancement works which they’ve carried out in partnership with local farmers.
Mark is the main contact person in Ireland for those interested in establishing Rivers Trusts.
East Wicklow Rivers Trust – https://wicklowrivers.ie/
Field Trip 2 – Saturday, 30th November 2019
Our second field trip will be to the River Vartry in County Wicklow to meet members of the fledgling East Wicklow Rivers Trust. The founding members the Trust, such as Luke Drea who will be our host for our visit, were involved in a major planning appeal some years ago. They organised a very comprehensive and sophisticated campaign from amongst their local community to object to aspects of a planning application, which in their view would have greatly depleted the overall volume of water in the River Vartry (https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklowpeople/news/vartry-treatment-plant-upgrade-is-given-the-goahead-36495478.html). Their experience in organising and mobilising interest groups in their catchment to tackle some very technical aspects of water abstraction and water abstraction legislation is quite unique and hopefully will be of great interest to you and to your local community. The EWRT have also recently applied to the County Wicklow Partnership (http://www.wicklowpartnership.ie/) for quite substantial funding to raise awareness of water and water quality issues across County Wicklow and to train groups of volunteers in assessing the water quality in stream and rivers in their area. By the time we meet with Luke and his colleagues they will know if this application has been successful and can outline to us how they plan to roll out the programme across the county.
River Dee, Glyde or Fane
Field Trip 3 – Small Streams Training Day – Saturday, 7th December (10.00 to 13.00)
The small streams training day will take place on a tributary of the Dee, Glyde or Fane in early December. The exact location will be dependent on water levels closer to the time. Since it is an outdoor event, in early winter, we will confine the stream visit to the morning of the 7th December. Martin and I will be available following the demonstration and training, to provide additional advice and could visit a specific location or two in your area that you thought might be suitable for a community project or indeed a location where you felt water quality was an issue.
Travel Arrangements
We will arrange bus transport for field visits 1 and 2 but will ask you to arrange your own transport to the location of the small streams training. The bus will collect you at a designated location (around 09.00 to 09.30) on the day of each field visit and drop you back between 17.00 and 18.00. Lunch will be provided. In the case of the stream training we will ensure that the chosen location has ample parking in the vicinity. Exact details of the above field trips in terms of: meeting points, times of departure and return, transport, outdoor clothing and footwear etc. will follow in a few weeks’ time.
Photos: We plan to take photographs during the field visits. If you would prefer not to be photographed or to have your photo used in reporting on the course or publicising future courses, please do let us know.
Health issues: If you have any health issues we should be aware of, please do let us know, in confidence, in advance of the training.
RMTP Website – http://louthwatersproject.com/
Please note that over the next week or so we will be placing a Resources Page on the Water Resources Management Training Programme website. This page will include useful links to information on water resources and water resources management in the Louth area, pdfs of selected slides from the training to date, information on risk assessment and also a list of project areas / themes you might consider undertaking with your community group. Once the page is up and running please do please visit it regularly for updates etc. Martin and I would be pleased to include any additional material you feel might be useful to you in developing water awareness programmes / specific projects in your area.
Making contact with participants
In circulating this update we’ve used the contact details supplied with each of the application forms. Not everybody provided contact details. Could you please make sure that friends or colleagues on the course are made aware of this circular and if they contact Ken we can include / update their contact details on the circulation list. If colleagues / friends who have not yet participated on the course wish to join us for Phase 2 of the course in Blackrock Community Centre, Dundalk, on the 2nd November or on any of the subsequent field trips, please do get them to contact Ken in advance of joining the course. They would be very welcome!
Looking forward to meeting up with you again soon,
Ken and Martin