South Cumbria Rivers Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect and conserve the aquatic environments of South Cumbria. The main rivers in the area are the Kent, Leven, Bela, Crake and Duddon. There are many smaller rivers. In addition there are significant still waters within the area including Windermere, Coniston, Grasmere, Rydal, and Esthwaite.

The Trust believes that the best protection that our rivers and lakes can get in the long term is if we have a local population, and local business that understand them and value them. To this end, they provide a local education programme aimed at giving the local population and visitors an appreciation of our waters and an environmental awareness.

Experience The River

A key part of the programme is that of the 'Experience the River' project. 'Experience the River' days are when children from local schools have a chance to visit their local rivers and study and draw the river life that they find there, and can be given some instruction to improve their environmental awareness.

Fiona Clucas and Annie Kent run the project. Fiona is a fine artist whose paintings and drawings are inspired by the natural world around her. Annie is a teacher specialising in environmental education. Elements of 'Experience the River' include: the children observing the river habitat and sketching and describing what they saw; river dipping involving the use of nets and trays and identification keys to find and identify creatures in the river; investigation of the riverbank habitat by collecting plant samples, making rubbings of tree bark and recording any insect life found; the drawing up of cross sections of the river by measuring the river width and depth at measured intervals; the creation of a painting based on the different levels of the river from it’s bed to it’s bank to the air above, inspired by the river visit.

Funds raised towards this project will directly provide for the environmental education of local schoolchildren.

Businesses Supporting this Project

Lakes Aquarium