If you own land that could do with ecological restoration, though tree planting or moorland restoration – or you’d like to volunteer over the summer to carry out ecological surveys on Upper Calder Valley uplands or rivers, the SOURCE Open Evening on 16th July is for you.
Just turn up at Hebden Bridge Town Hall Terrace Room on Tuesday 16th July at 7 p.m for a free buffet, followed by presentations from all the SOURCE partner groups. Treesponsibility, the Calder and Colne Rivers Trust, Calder Future, BlackBark and other organisations will be there with information about how landowners and volunteers can take part in the SOURCE project. The event will close at 9pm.
For more info, call 07847 815926, or email treesponsibility@yahoo.co.uk.
Hillside tree planting, grip blocking and moorland restoration are significant ways of slowing surface water run off. This will help reduce the risk of flash flooding, that the Upper Calder Valley experienced five times last year.
Landowner Opportunities
Many cloughs and hillsides in the Upper Calder Valley could benefit from tree-planting, grip-blocking or erosion control. The SOURCE project invites local landowners in the Hebden Bridge and Todmorden area to offer sites which could benefit from SOURCE’s ecological restoration work.
SOURCE project co-ordinator, Dongria Khond, said,
“It is really important that the Upper Calder Valley benefits from “Woodlands for Water” Forestry Commission funding before the opportunity is lost in September, so we are particularly keen to hear from anyone who has been thinking about creating new woodland on their land. All costs could be covered for suitable sites.”
Volunteering Opportunities
The Open Evening will also provide opportunities for volunteers to survey the Hebden Bridge catchment (the area of land which drains into Hebden Water, stretching from Wadsworth Moor in the East to Widdop in the West).
This is a great chance to develop some hands-on conservation skills.
Participants in the “Grab a grid” project will volunteer to survey one square kilometre of land, with full training being provided.
Calder and Colne Rivers Trust will be establishing a biological monitoring programme in the upper stretches of the River Calder, with participants being trained to identify eight key species, undertake kick samples, and classify and record their results.
SOURCE ecological restoration projects over the last two years
Established two years ago, the SOURCE has a long term vision of ecological restoration in the headwaters of the River Calder, aiming to:
- Minimize flash flooding through appropriately sited tree-planting and moorland restoration
- Treat damaged land and control erosion
- Improve the quality of the River Calder
- Undertake educational activitiesand encourage volunteering so that people of all ages and from all walks of life become aware of the value of our rivers and uplands.
34,000 trees have been planted since the project launch, thanks to Environment Agency funding and the hard work of hundreds of volunteers of all ages, and land slippage has been treated at four separate sites in the Todmorden area.