Waders on; measuring channel width, channel depth, water velocity and water quality.
The CNL team recently joined our colleagues Ros, Rowan, and Jen (who deliver all our Everyone’s Evenlode work) for a fun-filled practical day of training at Combe Mill. The Everyone’s Evenlode girls deliver sessions for all age groups – from primary school children to university students, all the way up to our volunteers. It’s essential they maintain their own skill set for training, and are able to make sure all participants are safe in and near the river. The recent day at Combe Mill gave colleagues first hand experience of the work the Everyone’s Evenlode team have been delivering for the last three years.
The group covered practical tips for outdoor working, health and safety, risk assessments, and group management. All the exercises were grounded in the practicalities of river work, so the team donned waders and did some river surveying, hydrology and flooding analysis, pond-dipping, a bio-diversity experiment, and a catchment tour taking in floodplain meadows, pond, woodland and a bird’s eye view over the river, with Geography subject-based games and experiments along the way; and a chance to have a go with the EM River table.
So far the Everyone’s Evenlode team have delivered river-based sessions to over 6,000 people – helping them get to know the river Evenlode better, understand the challenges it faces, learn more about river health and wildlife, and inspiring them to take action however and wherever they can.
It was great for the rest of the CNL team to experience the full Everyone’s Evenlode effect!