Thrilled to see the 3 new wildlife ponds we've dug at the top of the Winterbourne chalk stream catchment are filling up nicely! 💪💦 They provide ecological resilience, support a wide diversity of wildlife, restore connectivity to the floodplain, and provide natural flood management! 🐸🌱🐞🐍🦆

Raise a glass to these legends who braved the wind & rain to plant a cross-slope hedgerow in Newhaven 🙌 Part of the Ouse valley natural flood management project, this hedgerow will encourage water to infiltrate & create connectivity for wildlife! 🌳💦💪 Thanks to Lewes District Council for support!👏

📢📯 Exciting job alert klaxon 📣👀 The South Downs National Park Authority are hiring a Strategy Lead for Nature Recovery. An amazing role with responsibility for the delivery of nature recovery and water elements across the national park! 💦🐟🌳🐸 Check it out: www.southdowns.gov.uk/job/strategy...

A super productive day of wetland management with a team from Arcadis 👌 💪 🙂 Sections of reeds & bullrush cut to allow space for the winter rains & wetland plants dug to translocate to restored sections of the Cockhaise brook. 🌾💦🌱 Huge flocks of goldies on the teasels ♥️ 🐦

Fantastic to be out on the river Uck & tributaries looking at new #naturalfloodmanagement opportunities! 💦🦆🐟🌳 If you are a landowner, or know of suitable sites for scrapes, ponds, hedges, leaky barriers, river rewiggling etc. get in touch at [email protected] #UckAdaptation

Twelve bags of rubbish collected from the Lewes Winterbourne stream channel today! 💪💦👌 We also opened up a large section of overshaded stream to more light to encourage a more diverse range of marginal stream vegetation. Huge thanks to Environment Agency & Lewes District Council for support 🙌

A beautiful afternoon for some wetland management with a great team. Super effort 👌 💪 🙂 Sections of reeds cut and bullrush managed to allow space for the winter rains and encourage the diversity of marginal wetland plants. 🌾💦🌱 Egrets, buzzards, herons, woodpecker and kestrel kept us company ♥️ 🐦

Hugely exciting to be planting up our 3 new Winterbourne #ponds & creating some great amphibian/ invert habitat today! 🐸 🦎 They are filling up nicely & the shelves/margins now have many native marginal #wetland plants. 🌾🌱🌼 Fab to see greater water boatman, common darter dragonfly pond skaters!

Huge kudos to our River Rangers who turned up for a soggy but successful wetland management session today! 👏🦆💦🐸 💧Willow hide trimmed 💧Wetland plants translocated 💧Pampas, buddleia & gourse managed 💧Channel cleared for winter After such a dry year, the rain was welcome when it did arrive 🙏

Classed as 'reprotoxic', EEA-NH4 is a type of PFAS that can harm sexual function, fertility + child development. In 2023, we exposed a plant in Lancashire releasing almost 800kg into the River Wyre - so why isn't the curent EA investigation testing for it? 🧵 1 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A really successful volunteer day resolving erosion that was undercutting Haredean allotments on the Lewes Winterbourne stream.💧👌 Nicely stabilised with natural coir matting and wooden pegs. Thanks to the Environment Agency for support and funding! 🙌

That's a wrap! Fantastic to get phase 1 of the Landport Brooks project completed with initial ditch maintenance. 🚜👷💪 Next year's work aims to improve the ecological health & restore wet habitats of the floodplain grazing marsh. 🐦👌🐄 Great partnership with @LewesDistrictCouncil and @SDNP 👏

Fantastic sunny day for stream enhancements! 🐟🌞 River Rangers got stuck into channel clearing, bird hide weaving, strimming & reed cutting. 🙋‍♂️👏🙋‍♀️ Lucky to be serenaded by green woodpeckers, Cetti's warbler, kingfisher, buzzards and coots. The herons gave us a flyover too!

Very exciting to get phase 1 of the Landport Brooks restoration project underway this week with ditch management! 🚜👷💪 Over the course of the project interventions will benefit a range of wildlife & restore habitat in this floodplain grazing marsh! Great partnership with Lewes District Council👏

Senior Project Officer - Urban Water Quality with @OuseAdurRT.bsky.social hybrid between Office in Pulborough and home working, full-time position c-js.uk/3VlVpdJ

Check out this film one of our volunteers was inspired to make after taking part in a chalk stream restoration day, removing non-native species & litter from the Lewes Winterbourne!🌾👍 Nice work, John White 👏

That's a wrap! A genuinely brilliant week of berm building with our unbelievable River Rangers to finish off our Teville stream restoration!🤩🪇👌 As well as 12 berms that remeander the stream, we've been translocating native marginal and wetland plants into last year's silt-filled berms.🌾💪💦 🐸🦋🐍🐟🐦

It seems the most surefire way of getting a heatwave is to book in a week of berm making!🔥☀️💦🤩 Huge kudos to our incredible volunteers restoring rivers in this heat! 🎖🪇🏅 Kingfishers, coots, rudd, frogs, & dragonflies have all been enjoying the remeandered Teville chalkstream! 🐸 🦋🦆🐟

Great to get the last stubborn patch of Himalayan Balsam removed from the top of Lewes Winterbourne!😍💪🐟🌿 One day, this chalkstream will be INNS free! #invasivenonnativespecies

Not all heroes wear capes! Some legends volunteer to restore chalk streams in a heatwave! 💦🔥 Great to get 4 berms completed in the last week. We can't wait to see the marginal habitat that emerges bursting with life! 🦆🐸🐟🐍🌿🦋🐞 Baby coots, grass snakes, fritillaries, and frogs have already visited!

A fantastically productive day out Balsam bashing. Cleared three large sections of bank on the Cockhaise Brook which flows into the Ouse. 💦🌿💪 Lovely to see native bird's-foot trefoil, purple loosestrife, water plantain, & water mint emerging on sections of river bank we have previously cleared 😀

Absolute legends making berms today to re-meander a straightened and over deepened bit of stream. Thankfully plenty of shade to work in away from the scorching sun! We got our first wildlife visitor too 🐸

📢📣Amazing opportunity klaxon!! 📢📣 Our friends and partners at Weald to Waves are hiring a Landscape Advisor to help restore biodiversity along a 100-mile nature recovery corridor through the heart of Sussex! 🦔🦇🦫🦆🐍🐟🐞🦋🌳 www.environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/106346-... Spread the word! 🙏 🙌

Thrilled to share what we've been up to for the last week, digging 3 huge new wildlife ponds as part of the Winterbourne chalk stream restoration plan!💪💦 These will support a wide diversity of wildlife, restore connectivity to the floodplain, provide flood attenuation & store carbon! 🐸🌱🐞🐍🦆🐟 Yay!

Super exciting to find such a great range of freshwater invertebrates continuing to thrive at our Cockshut wetland, including mayflies, diving beetles, ramshorn snails, cased caddis & dragonfly and damselfly larvae! 💦🪱🐚🪳😍 The diverse habitats are clearly supporting an abundance of life!🐍🐞🦋🐟🤩

A genuine delight to show the Western Sussex Rivers Trust & other local catchment partners around our EPIC and Cockshut wetlands today!👌🐟💦🐸 Loads of good knowledge sharing and ideas, despite the occasional drizzle! #MakeRiversBendAgain

Really nice to see the resilience of our Cockshut wetland even after such a dry spring! ☀️🌡 More islands & marginal bank emerging but deep pools & the low flow channel are still going strong, providing vital wetland habitats for a wealth of wildlife! 🐸🪿🐍🐟🦋🐞 Great partnership @lewesdc.bsky.social 👏💪

Great to be out with the River Rangers again today, doing a site reptile survey, cutting reeds, lopping brambles, & removing spent rabbit guards.😘💦🐟🐍🌱 So many damsel & dragonflies buzzing the channel, & our volunteer Ian White spotted this lovely Mother Shipton moth! 🦋 Great work team💪💧👍

A fantastic end to #INNSWeek with two days of removing non-native species from one of our precious chalk streams! 🌱💦💪 Two truckloads of Himalayan Balsam, Cotoneaster, Leylandii, Cherry laurel, Crocosmia, Spanish bluebells, & Box-leaved honeysuckle removed from the Lewes Winterbourne! Top effort 👏

It's #NationalHedgerowWeek! 🌳🌳🌳 Hedgerows play a vital role in enhancing rivers, creating corridors, slowing surface water & filtering pollutants. 🐟💦🌱 We're looking for opportunities to create new hedgerows like these ones we planted in 2020. Get in touch to find out more: [email protected] 🌳🌳

Fantastic two days of erosion control on the Lewes Winterbourne chalk stream! 💪💦🙌 Over 30 bags of waste removed, including 4 rusty wheelbarrows & non-native species. Replaced with coir matting, which will get planted up with native hazel trees.🌱🌳 Thanks to our brilliant volunteers! 😘

An excellent morning looking around the Cockshut stream restoration project area near Lewes (with the Seaford Natural History Group). A single Cattle egret nearby and some very vocal Marsh frogs in the edge of the wetland. Walk led by Peter from @ouseadurrt.bsky.social

Did you know it takes at least five years for a bluebell seed to grow into a bulb? In the coming weeks, wide seas of violet will appear across ancient and semi-ancient woodland. 📷 Steven Brookwell 📍 Wiston Estate #SouthDowns #Spring #Easter

What a wonderful day talking about #naturebasedsolutions. Chamber Mead #wetland filters over 250 million litres of water to help conserve the Hogsmill River, a rare #chalkstream. Find out more here: southeastriverstrust.org/chamber-mead-wetlands

Great day spent with @seriverstrust.bsky.social sharing experience on their Chamber Mead wetlands and Hogsmill river projects!💧💪 Some great lessons learned on stream restoration 🐟💦👌

Great to see our urban wetlands in Ringmer looking great in the spring sunshine. Heron and ducks feeding and lots of native wetland plants on show.

The world we've built is not adapted to the world we've created

Another great day in the woods with OART & Environment Agency volunteers making swales and leaky barriers. Some of yesterday's swales are already catching water 💧 All helping to #slowtheflow and reduce flood risk. #StoringTheStorm

My local river. I'm so pleased this is happening, plus all the work that is being done on its chalk tributaries, the Cockshut and the Winterbourne, by the @ouseadurrt.bsky.social among others. At last some positive news!

A fascinating & hopeful river-moment: Lewes District Council agrees to recognise a Charter of Rights for the River Ouse. “The Ouse has long been taken for granted…this is the beginning of a journey to give the river a voice & ensure its wellbeing for future generations.” elflaw.org/news/histori...

There's a vibrant week long programme of events looking at the Lewes Winterbourne chalkstream starting this weekend. We'll be talking about the challenges facing the Winterbourne & restoring it, benefiting both communities & wildlife Full programme: loveourouse.org/winterbourne...

Fantastic to be out with our River Rangers today, clearing bramble, removing invasive pampas grass, collecting up rabbit guards, & diversifying the marginal wetland habitats! 👏😘💪 Snipe, harvest mice nests, and flowering marsh marigolds kept us entertained! 🌼🪶🐭 There's a sniff of spring in the air!

Do you know someone who could bring people together across the Sussex Ouse landscape to deliver nature's recovery? https://buff.ly/4hxsZHb

Throw ropes, defibs, EpiPens & buoyancy aids.We've had a deep dive into water safety training & outdoor first aid over the last week 💦👍🚑 Making sure our river & wetland restoration activities are safe as well as effective is a top priority 👌 Buzzing to see our volunteers by a river this season 🙌

3M knew firefighting foams containing PFAS were toxic, documents show

Important report on how the climate crisis is impacting the water cycle across the globe 💧

Great to see that our leaky barriers were still slowing the flow in ditches in Bedelands Nature Reserve today! 😀 Reducing peak flow, trapping sediment, improving water quality 👌

Around eight million properties in England, or one in four, could be at risk of flooding by 2050 as impacts of climate change increase says Environment Agency: www.bbc.com/news/article...

It's time to get #WilderbyDesign 🏡 As Government prepares its Planning Bill for next year, we’re calling for: Greenprint for nature with new protected sites 🏞️ Wilder neighbourhoods - sustainable drainage, bat boxes, & more A national nature map 🗺️ More info 👇 wcl.org.uk/wilder-by-de...