WWT Steart Marshes is a Dragonfly Hotspot, home to 23 species of dragonfly! Discover the dragonfly species at the site, including their lifecycle and why this wetland habitat is so important for them.

The event runs 10am-3pm on both Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th.

For further details and timings of activities, see the WWT webpage: https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/steart-marshes/whats-on/events/dragonfly-weekend-25

[Image: Blue-tailed Damselfly at Steart Marshes by Dave Smallshire]

This 2.5 day intermediate Freshwater Invertebrates course will provide you with the surveying and identification skills you need to begin to survey freshwater habitats.

Freshwater invertebrates are those which spend at least part of their lifecycle in freshwater, and they are often used in freshwater ecology studies as indicators to assess the health of freshwater ecosystems. Knowing how to identify freshwater species is a key skill for any ecologists or conservationists working in freshwater habitats.

This course will include:

• Introduction to freshwater ecosystems
• Sampling techniques and water quality assessments
• Identification of species
• Bio-security, legislation, risk management and invasive species management

This beginner to intermediate course is designed to be a gentle introduction to surveying freshwater invertebrates for those that have had limited or no experience of identifying them.

You will use hand lenses, microscopes and identification keys to look at what makes a mayfly a mayfly, and how to tell apart the larvae of beetles and flies. Our tutor will guide you through a combination of classroom and field sessions to build up your knowledge, skills and confidence.

This course will include:

• An overview of the major groups of freshwater invertebrates in the UK.
• Sampling techniques including practical experience of pond sampling and river sampling.
• An introduction to using and understanding identification resources to identify freshwater invertebrates to both order and family level.
• A beginners guide to setting up and using microscopes to view freshwater invertebrates.
• Practical experience of using the Field Studies Council AIDGAP ‘Key to the major groups of British freshwater invertebrates‘ to identify invertebrates to order and family level using external morphological features.

Booking and information

Freshwater invertebrates are a diverse and vital part of aquatic ecosystems in the UK, inhabiting rivers, lakes, ponds, and wetlands. These diverse animals include insects, molluscs, crustaceans, and leeches. They play a key role in food webs and are often used as indicators for water quality.

This self-led course equips participants with essential identification skills for studying freshwater invertebrates. Providing an introduction to the main taxonomic groups commonly found in the UK’s freshwater habitats, this Freshwater Invertebrates course will help you develop a deeper understanding of their diversity and ecological importance.

Full information and booking.

The Great UK WaterBlitz is a biannual campaign calling on everyone to go out and test the quality of their local freshwater including rivers, streams and lakes. This helps to build a national picture of water quality across the UK. The Great UK WaterBlitz is part of the ongoing FreshWater Watch citizen science monitoring programme.

Find out more and how to take part here

The Rivers Trust Conference 2025

The Rivers Trust’s Annual Conference in 2025 will examine the vast impacts of blue-green algal blooms on waterbodies whilst uncovering the root causes of how and why they occur, and the integral roles played by our rivers and catchments.

Blue-green algae are more and more present in news headlines, not least in relation to Lough Neagh, the UK’s largest lake. But this ecological disaster is anything but new and is increasing in frequency and severity. They are not actually algae, but a group of photosynthesising bacteria called cyanobacteria – microscopic organisms that naturally occur in freshwater bodies. When conditions are favourable, cyanobacteria proliferate to form the blooms that appear like algae, causing a range of subsequent problems that will only worsen in the future. Pollution from catchments and rivers can have significant impacts on waterbodies such as lakes, creating the perfect storm of conditions for blue-green algae to thrive.

The impacts of these blooms go well beyond them being an eye sore to our waterbodies; they affect tourism, recreation, fisheries, agriculture, and property values, all of which are essential components of sustainable social and economic development. This blanket of blue-green algae suffocates our water bodies by reducing oxygen and sunlight and releases harmful toxins, posing health risks to not just wildlife, but people too.

Whilst environmental and climatic factors like warmer temperatures, excess nutrients, and low rainfall are typically known as the key drivers for triggering algal blooms, ongoing scientific research highlights how the causes are mucsrivers h more varied and have been compounded over time. In fact, algal blooms are largely a symptom of systemic failures of land and sewage management, exacerbated by the increasing pressures of climate change. Unravelling the myriad causes of blue-green algae will help us to restore balance in our catchments and improve environmental health in the round.

This online conference will delve deeper into the features, causes and impacts of blue-green algal blooms on water bodies, communities, and the economy, as we try to mitigate their effects and find ways to reverse the factors causing their proliferation. Addressing the causes of blue-green algal blooms is no easy feat, and will require multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral solutions at a whole catchment scale, but further understanding this is a step in the right direction.

Find out more and register

Leaders: Steve Jones and Jo Poland
Moving off from the meeting point at the bottom of the Fire Brigade Site, Tolvaddon, (SW657417) at 11.00am

Please note that if you are attending this event and would like to park at the bottom of the Fire Brigade site rather than up on the main road, as part of the registration process on the day you will need to give the registration number of your vehicle which will be shared with the Fire Brigade.

Our first Scrub Bash session of 2025 is also our first event at Great Wheal Seaton since the planning application for a mixed development of housing & small industrial units was submitted to Cornwall Council for the land immediately the other side of the Red River at Tolvaddon, (see our website for more details). Regardless of the whether that application is successful or not, it is more vital than ever that we keep our site in prime condition as it is not only the last remaining Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly site in the valley, (and a potential reservoir for future expansion), but it is also recognised as one of the few permenant sites for the species in the country, thanks largely to our management.    So please come along and join us in clearing the regrowth of gorse, willow and alder that has relentessly sprouted again since last year! 

We have permission to park at the bottom of the Fire Station complex for this event but please park sensibly and with due regard for the need for access at all times by the Fire Brigade. Detail directions can be found below.

Remember to wear old clothes, it’s a messy job if you get carried a way and sparks from Gary’s bonfire will damage clothing if you get too close!!! Wellies are a must and don’t forget to bring a packed lunch. We will provide tools along with gloves and protective eyewear, however you are more than welcome to bring your own kit if you feel happier using that. For health & safety purposes we will be taking down contact details for all those attending.

You can see photos & read about the ongoing work at our Red River Valley sites, along with the species involved on the Red River Rescuers Facebook page here:  http://www.facebook.com/groups/redriverrescuers/     Why not register and get regular updates. Don’t worry if you’re not on Facebook, we have our own website where you can also read all about our activities here:    www.redriverrescuers.weebly.com

Sadly the Calciner chimney that graced the tin streaming landscape at Great Wheal Seton for over 150 years, watching it morph into a unique nature reserve, finally succumbed to the ravages of time & neglect during the storms of Bert & Darragh. You can watch a video of the stricken chimney here:   Red River Valley LNR – The demise of the Great Wheal Seton Calciner Chimney

Directions to Great Wheal Seton, (Tolvaddon):
If you are travelling in a westerly direction along the A30 from Redruth take the first Camborne (Tolvaddon) exit, signposted “Pool, Camborne, Portreath A3047”. After entering the slip road take the right hand lane signposted “Portreath” & then bear right as you drop down to the traffic lights. At the traffic lights turn right on to the dual carriageway and pass under the A30. Immediately after passing under the A30 turn left on to the minor road. After 60 metres you will pass the fire station, turn left onto the fire Brigade site and wind your way down to the bottom of the site where you can park sensibly.

If you are travelling in an easterly direction along  the A30 from Hayle take the second Camborne exit, signposted “Camborne, Portreath A3047”. After entering the slip road take the left hand lane. Immediately after the traffic lights at the Portreath junction, move into the right hand lane and take the next right, (if you pass under the A30 you have gone too far). After 60 metres you will pass the fire station, turn left onto the fire Brigade site and wind your way down to the bottom of the site where you can park sensibly.

The valley is a rich mosaic of wildlife habitats officially designated as a Local Nature Reserve, the whole area has huge untapped potential, but like so many areas, is badly in need of some conservation management. Come along and make a difference.

Every January the Oxford Real Farming Conference connects people in the UK and around the globe who want to transform our food and farming system.

Here are a few of the themes you’ll find in the programming at ORFC 2025:

FARM PRACTICE: There’ll be lots of great take-home advice, deep dives into the success and challenges of individual farms, and practical discussions on topics such as natural flood management, activating soil enzymes, pest control, and biodiversity and livestock. The farm practice strand is organised in collaboration with Soil Association and Pasture for Life.

FOOD AND FARM POLICY: For everyone impassioned by the politics of food and farming, we’ve selected a brilliant series of policy focused sessions with Sustain and the Soil Association. What are the practical political tools that can be used to achieve transformation? Come along to sessions looking at all facets of the just transition: from creative ways to fund it, to moving beyond intensive livestock; and for discussions on public farmland, pesticide policies, ecocide law, agri-misinformation in elections, ELMs, and more.

JUSTICE STRAND: The Justice Strand, hosted by Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT), Shared Assets and Seeding Reparations, invites those from marginal perspectives to connect, share knowledge and empower each other. Sessions centre on equity, solidarity and collaboration and explore topics such as: land access, reparations, abolition, health justice, racial justice, queer liberation, neurodiversity, alternative economies, migration, workers’ rights and anti-oppression.

LANDWORKERS ALLIANCE AND LA VIA CAMPESINA: La Via Campesina (LVC) is a global grassroots ‘movement of movements’ representing over 200 million peasants, farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and Indigenous people across 81 different countries. The Landworkers’ Alliance is a member organisation of LVC, and works to build the movement for agroecology and food sovereignty across all four nations of the UK. This year, the LWA x LVC programme will bring together landworkers, young people, trade unionists, and activists from the UK and internationally to explore what it means to be a social movement and why building a social movement is key to achieving agroecology.

LISTENING TO THE LAND: this strand explores what it means to have a more reciprocal relationship with Nature and how a heart-based approach to our work might support and progress the transformation of our food and farming system. Working with partners, the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) and Animate Earth, you will find various sessions seeded through the programme that explore traditional or indigenous knowledge systems, farming practices based on an intuitive relationship with the land to establish a more embodied connection to landscape.

YOUTH: In partnership with Emergent Generation, La Via Campesina, and FLAME, we’re hosting youth-oriented sessions across the conference this year. There will be space for youth movement collaboration, intergenerational discussions, art exhibitions, and relaxed networking. Later, there’ll be a relaxed roundtable on inspiring more youth to join activist movements, before an evening drinks where newcomers passionate about the politics and practice of food and farming will have a chance to meet movement leaders.

SOCIALS AND ENTERTAINMENT: We’ve got plenty of social opportunities – from landmatching lunchtime gatherings to evening socials for our LGBTQIA+ community, food and farming newcomers, and journalists. We’re excited to be hosting wonderful live music, poetry and storytelling performances in the evenings.

The Groundswell Festival provides a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.