Finding our flow
An introduction to West Cumbria Rivers Trust’s Youth Panel
by Annabel Brett (Youth Panel Member)
What is the West Cumbria Rivers Trust Youth Panel?
We’re a group of young people from West Cumbria who are passionate about nature, love the outdoors, or are just looking for something to do on the weekend. We meet up once a month at Walkmill Woods for creative activities and bushcraft – or just a chat around the campfire. We volunteer on various projects at places like Longlands Lake too, and generally help the Trust get an idea of what young people think and how we can input to their plans and activities.
What has the youth panel been getting up to recently?
On our first meet, we did kick sampling in the river Keekle and walked round Walkmill Community Woodland, getting to know the landscape and how it’s used by the community.
Kick Sampling? What’s that?
Kick sampling is exactly what it says on the tin: you kick up the river bed, catch the debris in a net and sift through it for little creatures. The different creatures we find tell us about how healthy the river is.
And?
It’s a clean bill of health! We found lots of lovely creatures squirming around there. This is very encouraging and means the river is recovering well after recent restoration work (see below).
What else did you do?
We walked to a campfire area, made smores (delicious!) and heard about the history of walkmill from Jodie, the trust director.
Has Walkmill Woods not always been there?
Walkmill used to be a coal mine. After the mine closed the mineshafts were filled in and the land was bought by the council. They planted lots of trees which led to the forest you see today. It’s astounding that this was once a mine – it’s hard to imagine that now.
Where does West Cumbria Rivers Trust come into all this?
A few years ago the Council was planning to sell the land, so the Parish Council and the Trust stepped in to make sure it was kept as a woods that the public can use.
What have they been doing with it?
The Trust have been running forest schools for local children and undertook a big project to restore the river Keekle in places. The local community have been extremely active too – those that know Walkmill really care about it.
Was something wrong with the river?
When the mines were filled in people were worried that waste would leak through the ground into the river, so they tried to put plastic sheeting on the riverbed to protect it. They were only doing what they thought was best but sadly this led to a build-up of plastic in the river, meaning there was no riverbed habitat for wildlife. The Trust had to re-route the river in places and remove the plastic. That’s why it’s such good news that the kick sampling went well. The Youth Panel would like to start a programme of regular sampling, so we can monitor the river’s health more closely.
What else did you do at Walkmill?
Anne, the artist we’re working with, came along too. Together we’re developing some creative projects to raise awareness of Walkmill, its biodiversity, and its value to the community. It’s a hidden gem. After all, only one of our Youth Panel had been there before, yet we all live locally!
Any ideas you can share with us?
Nothing concrete yet but it’s something we look forward to working on in our coming meetings.
This sounds great. Can anyone join the Youth Panel?
New members are welcome. Email <insert new education email ad in here> for more information.
