“… after many months (years!) of assessment, planning, design, negotiation and hard work; permission has just been granted for my design of habitat restoration and enhancement works to go ahead on the upper Carshalton arm of the Wandle.”

As a partnership project between the Wandle Trust, Wandle Piscators, Wild Trout Trust and Environment Agency, this initiative has been carefully designed to make the most of the habitat in the upper river between Grove Park and Butter Hill – and get a sustainably breeding population of wild trout established in the Wandle’s headwaters.

Now we’ve been granted the necessary EA permissions, the really exciting stuff can start – with a Wild Trout Trust Practical Visit before the end of the year to teach our volunteers the latest hands-on river restoration techniques. (Sure, we know one or two already, but there’s always more to learn!)

So keep an eye on our Calendar page for dates and details – and come and join us if you can!

It’s not quite as bad as Trewint Street, but in its own way the bridge from King George’s Park over the Wandle to the Henry Prince Estate is just as much of a fly-tipping target (and like Ravensbury Terrace it’s downstream of Trewint Street too)…

… so when Erica spotted the appearance of a washing machine in the river, we designated it as the site of this August’s cleanup.

On this stretch of the Wandle, the river and its bankside nature reserves are separated from the park by a high fence (although we hope this will change in the foreseeable future).

As a result, getting the rubbish to our collection point involved much teamwork and heavy lifting…

… followed by a mercifully short push across the bridge to the back of the estate…

… where a couple of our younger volunteers started to exercise their entrepreneurial muscle by separating out the scrap metal for recycling!

Wandsworth Council‘s Principal Parks Officer Val Selby had asked us to blitz a large patch of invasive Himalayan balsam at the same time as our work in the river, and Jez was happy with the results:

As usual, we had to evict at least one eel (this one from the plumbing of an old bathroom sink)…

… whilst hanging over the bridge at coffee time, some osprey-eyed Wandle Piscators spotted a pair of large koi carp, finning sedately up and downstream in their new, cleaner environment. 

In fact, by the time Wandsworth Council’s cage lorry arrived we’d dredged up an almost unbelievable variety of rubbish…

25 tyres (including 2 lorry tyres), at least 15 bicycles, more than 10 plastic drainpipes, 9 traffic cones, 7 wooden boards, 5 carpets, 4 shopping trolleys, 4 computers, 3 kids’ scooters, 3 road barriers, 2 buckets, 2 mattresses, 2 duvets, 2 crutches, 1 wheelchair, 1 suitcase, 1 hoover, 1 picnic table, 1 freestanding BBQ, 1 security box, 1 car door, 1 television, 1 golf club, 1 large metal box, 1 washing machine, the eel’s old sink and enough unwanted toys to open a shop:

And as Terry finally drove his cage lorry away down the converging sightlines of the Henry Prince Estate with our thanks and more than 2 tonnes of rubbish, many of us headed in the opposite direction for a drink at the Jolly Gardeners!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Amelia, Andy B, Andy P, April, Ann, Arud, Bart, Billy, Carol, Charles, Dave, Debs, Doug, Erica, Gideon, Hannah, Helen, Henry, Jack, James, Jane, Jez, Jim, Jo H, Jo S, John, Joolz, J Evans, Keith, Leonie, Lindsey, Lisa, Louis, Matthew, Michael F, Michael S, Mike, Nick, Peter, Rob, Robert L, Robert W, Roger, Rosie, Sally Ann, Steve, Susan, S Thomas, Theo, Toby and Tom

When it comes to environmental education, Avenue Primary School in Sutton is right at the top of the class.

85 per cent of its pupils walk to school, teachers run projects to encourage cycling (and recycling) – and there’s even a kids’ squad of Eco reps who make sure no energy is wasted.  

Best of all, our regular community cleanup volunteer Abi Johns leads the school’s participation in our annual Trout in the Classroom programme – so it was no surprise that Avenue Primary won ‘Green Primary School of the Year’ at this year’s Sutton Green Guardian Awards!

Here’s what Angus, Ben and Dan from Abi’s class wrote about their Trout in the Classroom release day this year:

On Thursday 18 March, some of the Eco reps and the winners of the trout competition went to the River Wandle. When we got there the year 6 Eco reps had to put on waterproof waders and a life jacket. We finally got to go into the river with the trout.

The water pressure squeezed our legs when we got in. It felt really strange like the water actually going into the waders. Before we put the trout into the river we had picture taken of us holding the trout.

Finally we got to lower the box into the water. The trout were free! Once we had got out and taken the equipment off we went back to school. It was great knowing that we had helped the River Wandle’s wild brown trout.  

You can also click here to watch Abi’s film of Avenue Primary’s trout release. 

A big gold star for Miss Johns from all of us at the Wandle Trust!

On the upper Wandle where our previous cleanups have successfully removed most of the rubbish, the main threat to the river’s health is now Himalayan balsam.

This invasive non-native species is a tall fast-growing annual plant with sweet-smelling pink or white flowers that spreads easily by producing explosive, floating seed pods. It damages biodiversity and rivers by over-shading native plants: its sweet smell also attracts bees more than many native species, so their flowers receive less pollination.

After wrecking native plant communities, Himalayan balsam then dies back in winter, destabilising riverbanks because the soil is no longer held together by deeper native plant roots. Soil from the banks is eroded by winter floods and dumped into the river gravels as silt, suffocating invertebrates and fish eggs.

Fortunately, there’s a solution to this problem, because Himalayan balsam’s shallow roots make it easy to pull up…

… and its seeds only survive two or three years in the soil. This means that we can start pulling it at the top of the Wandle catchment, gradually forcing it further and further downstream until we reach the Thames.

Having started this botanical cleanup on the Croydon arm of the Wandle during the Wandle Valley Festival, we came back to this area for our July cleanup to conduct the next stage of our blitz, and clear any more balsam that had appeared since June, as part of Sutton’s Take Part, Take Pride programme.

Pleasingly, very few new balsam plants seemed to have sprouted in the last month, but one or two had spotted their chance and shot up to six feet or more!  Needless to say, John wasn’t impressed, and soon put paid to such ambitions…

After this second sweep, we plunged into the untouched jungle of stinging nettles and balsam downstream…

… where Gideon showed Erica his novel floating-wheelbarrow technique…

…and Bella did the rounds with bottles of water to keep us hydrated:

Sally’s raspberry cake proved a great hit at coffee time…

… and we sat chatting in the sun for a good half hour…

… before tearing back into the tropical groves of balsam all the way down to the little weirs below Richmond Green, and re-seeding the whole area with a native grass and wildflower meadow mix including buttercups, cowslips, selfheal, wild marjoram and oxeye daisies:

This was a WATER river rehabilitation and restoration event selected within the scope of the INTERREG IVA France (Channel) – England cross-border European cooperation programme, co-financed by the ERDF.

And as we surveyed the piles of balsam and rubbish we’d collected, we all agreed: it was worth all the heat, stings and scratches just to see this stretch of the Wandle on its way back to proper health and biodiversity!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Barry, Carol, David, Debbie, Diana, Erica, Gideon, Helen, Jan, Jo, John, Marcia, Neil, Roger, Rosie, Sally, Sue, Tim and Theo

… and thanks as ever to Sandra and our friends at Sutton Council for collecting and composting the balsam for us, as well as dealing with a small pile of rubbish: 6 bags, 1 carpet, 1 kitchen cabinet and 1 shopping trolley.

(Image: via the Guardian)

Here at the Wandle Trust we were deeply saddened to learn of the recent death of Dame Angela Rumbold DBE, reported in the Independent, the Guardian, the Times, and the Telegraph. 

Dame Angela served as our first Chair of Trustees between 2000 and 2005, having first become involved in the cause of caring for the River Wandle whilst she was MP for Mitcham and Morden.

Trustees’ meetings at her home in Surbiton were run with military timekeeping and crisp yet humorous authority – all no doubt honed on the anvil of the Conservative Party, of which she was Deputy Chairman from 1992 to 1995, and Vice Chairman from 1995 to 1997.

Her previous ministerial portfolios for the environment, education and science gave her a natural sympathy for our long-term cleanup and educational work on the river, and she was instrumental in the early development of our Trout in the Classroom programme.

Even after relinquishing her formal involvement with us, Dame Angela continued to take a strong interest in the Wandle, never failing to respond to our newsletters with an encouraging note.

Erica and I will represent the Wandle Trust at Dame Angela’s funeral at St Andrew’s Church in Surbiton tomorrow, and her inspiring presence in South London will be sadly missed by all.

Have you ever taken part in any of the Wandle Trust’s community river cleanups, Himalayan balsam blitzes, Trout in the Classroom or any other events?

If so, we’d like to hear what you thought of your volunteering experience – and what you got out of it.

Our partners at the Wild Trout Trust and social research company Substance (who also developed the Angling Research and Assynt Angling Research projects, and sometimes even get stuck into our cleanups) have spent the last few months designing a survey around the whole Trout in the Town programme.

You may already know that the Wandle Trust’s successful projects formed part of the inspiration for the national Trout in the Town initiative – so we’d love to get as many of our own volunteers’ views as possible.  

In turn, combined with the results of a second more Wandle-focused survey which we’ll issue for our July cleanup, we hope to hear all your ideas for making the time you generously give to the Wandle Trust even more rewarding.  

And going forward, these surveys will also help us define the value of the opportunities we offer you and our other volunteers: essential information when it comes to drawing up fundraising bids to continue our groundbreaking projects on the Wandle.

You can find the first stage Trout in the Town survey here: it should take just 5 – 10 minutes, and we’d love to hear your views!

The digital revolution continues here in the Wandle Valley… although we like to think this charity blog is already one of the best in our sector, we’re constantly looking for new ways to spread the word about looking after our favourite South London river.

As a result, we’ve just created a Wandle Trust Facebook group to add to our presence on Project Dirt, Breathing Places and other social and environmental online meeting points.

So if you’re on Facebook, check out the group, join us today, and help even more people find out about our vital work on the Wandle!

Despite the tragic discovery of a body in the Wandle just a few days earlier and a couple of hundred yards downstream from our meeting point at Plough Lane, our June cleanup went ahead with the blessing of the police (maybe they hoped we’d find something they hadn’t…)

Following on from May’s cleanup in Wandsworth, this was the second part of our joint event with Thames 21, LOCOG and the EU WATER project selected within the scope of the INTERREG IVA France (Channel) – England cross-border European cooperation programme, co-financed by the ERDF.

After an unusually sober Health and Safety briefing, our collapsible ladder proved invaluable for getting volunteers down the steep brambly banks and sheet-steel sides of this heavily-engineered section of the Wandle…

… where Andy organised our efforts on the grappling ropes…

… and the rubbish came pouring out…

… as fast as those on the banks could keep up with it:

Working our way slowly upstream through decades of muddy detritus, one of our volunteers even found Nemo…

… who soon found himself perched on another massive rubbish pile for Merton Council to collect…

… at least 20 carpets, 12 tyres, 11 bags of rubbish, 8 melamine boards, 7 shopping trolleys, 5 traffic cones, 3 bicycles, 3 toasters, 3 mops, 2 car seats, 2 pushchairs, 2 hoses, 2 wire cables, 1 corrugated plastic sheet, 1 flat plastic sheet, 1 lorry wheel, 1 mattress, 1 kettle, 1 boiler, 1 dustbin, 1 lawnmower, 1 long green pipe, 1 shopping basket, 1 large plastic trough, 1 roll of chicken wire , 1 bowling ball and 1 small plastic fish…

 … before the rest of CSI Team Wandle formed up for a final photo…

… and kicked back from constabulary duties with a drink at the Leather Bottle!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Afzal, Andrew, Andy, Ann, Arndt, Ben, Carol, Cecilia, Chris, Debbie, Dominic, Doug, Erica, Gideon, Guy, Hannah, Hazel, Helen, Henry, James, Jo, Kay, Keith, Ken, Kevin, Kevin, Lyn, Maja, Mark, Mike, Morwenna, Nikki, Paul, Phil, Robert S, Robert W, Roger, Sally, Sarah, Sean, Si, Sihong, Steve, Tanya, Theo, Toby, Tom and Vicky

Like several of our activities planned for summer 2010 as part of the WATER project, this was an educational event selected within the scope of the INTERREG IVA France (Channel) – England cross-border European cooperation programme, co-financed by the ERDF.

On Saturday, Bella linked up with the Environment Agency’s June Bell and Jo Heisse at Merton Abbey Mills to run an educational exhibit on invasive non-native species…

… while the rest of us made a start at Richmond Green, where the Wandle’s culverted headwaters enter Sutton…

… pulling almost 100 metres of balsam, and making a good start on the “Himalaya” we planned to create in Beddington Park.

On Sunday morning, we cleared another stretch at Richmond Green…

… before returning to areas of Beddington Park where we’d tried tactical clearances last year, seeding them with native grasses and flowers…

… and finally admiring the Himalayan mountain range we’d created for Sutton Council to compost!

Thanks to all our volunteers:

Saturday: Ailis, Andy, Andrew, Ann, Bev, Debbie, Edgours, Erica, Gideon, Janet, Jez, Jo, John, Rob, Sally P, Sally S, Sofija and Theo

Sunday: Ann, Bev, Erica, Helen, Jo, Joanna, John, Paul S, Paul Y, Robert, Sally, Shane and Theo

On Thursday 8 March at 10.30am in the morning we gathered at a new venue for our trout releases – a stretch of the river in front of Sainsbury’s and M&S on Merton High Street. It was great to create such a stir amongst local people going about their usual business.

In the afternoon it was off to the Hackbridge in Sutton, a few hundred yards downstream from where earlier generations of Trout in the Classroom have just begun to breed successfully.

We were lucky to be blessed with lovely early spring weather throughout the day.

The following Thursday 25 March we had a full day on the Wandle at the National Trust’s Morden Hall Park.

In the morning it was predominantly Wandsworth schools releasing their fish, and we were delighted to have the Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth as our guest of honour. Councillor Jane Cooper was a terrific sport – even getting into the river to help whilst still wearing her mayoral chain to pose for photos.

Honeywell School as usual made the most of the opportunity to show real theatricality. 

What must the residents of Morden town have thought as the pupils and teachers paraded from the tube station in their fancy dress, sporting banners and carrying their precious bucket of trout fry?

This year in addition to the usual class work the project included a Carbon Balancing competition. Participants were invited to work out and then instigate ways in which Trout in the Classroom could reduce the amount of carbon fuels it uses. 

Winners of the competition were Linden Lodge from Wimbledon who ran a water saving week which highlighted the importance of saving water at home and at school. The prize of £250 was very generously donated by Wandle Trust supporter Roger Stevens.

The Croydon schools arrived at Morden Hall Park after lunch.  No one was put off by the intermittent rain which fell throughout the day.

Many of our project partners, friends and volunteers attended throughout these two weeks, as well as representatives from our sponsors including Thames Water and Penta Consulting. We extend our thanks to them and all our supporters. 

As we gathered at the end of the day we all agreed that it was great to see our local children and young people making a difference to the environment as part of Trout in the Classroom and the Living Wandle project!