About Us

We’re West Cumbria Rivers Trust – protecting and preserving our waterways and blue spaces since 2009. Formed around a kitchen table by volunteers, we have come a long way since then, winning four awards and supporting internationally important habitats and their wildlife.

We’re proud to be part of the Rivers Trust movement, one of 60 local river trusts across UK and Ireland.

Our mission

West Cumbria Rivers Trust is an environmental charity dedicated to protecting, restoring and improving the rivers and lakes of West Cumbria for the benefit of wildlife and the people living and working around them. Our dedicated and passionate team work hard all year round partnering with landowners, farmers, organisations, local businesses, schools and communities to deliver for rivers and inspire a love for and understanding of our waterways.

Our values

We are guided by 5 important values:

We respect and value those we work with, and the contributions that they make.
Working in partnership is at the heart of what we do. No one organisation has all of the skills, knowledge, capacity or influence. We believe that we can achieve more by working together. We work together with all those with a role to play, finding solutions and delivering together.
We are committed to improving rivers for people, and nature and will encourage creativity, innovation and dynamism in all that we do.
We work together with openness, integrity and respect, providing support to one another, working co-operatively, respecting one another’s views, and making our work environment fun and enjoyable.
We aim to achieve the highest possible standards in all activities, holding ourselves accountable for results. We take full ownership for our actions and their outcomes; we have the courage to make bold decisions, we do what we say we will do - people can trust us to deliver.

Our strategic aims

Our aims are:

Conserve, restore and enhance rivers and catchments to improve and protect the natural environment
Build on our track record of delivering successful projects, where stakeholder needs are respected and outputs clearly measured, by being a trusted partner among funding organisations, communities, and businesses.
Engage stakeholders and communities to inspire enthusiasm and commitment to deliver positive proactive change to improve our natural environment.
Supporting sustained financial security that enables our vision by developing a robust and diverse network of corporate sponsors, donors and individual supporters.

A dedicated, professional team

Meet the team

Our awards

Business Strategy & Plan: 2024 – 2027

We’re delighted to share our aspirations for the future in our latest Business Strategy and Plan. This is our roadmap of where we want to get to and how we’ll get there in order to deliver for our rivers and community.

Download PDF