Blog
Tatty bye
It's difficult to summarise three years at the Forth Rivers Trust in a single blog post, especially when it's the Friday afternoon of your last week and the lure of a cold, frothy pint of ale at the neighbouring pub is unusually persistent. So, I have compiled a wee...
Tidy your Burn on Burns day – Armadale
I was privileged to be involved at the beginning of a new community drive to tidy up their local area. The main motivator on the scene in Armadale was a very inspiring local lad by the name of Finlay. He was compelled to start the group from his experiences litter...
What’s in the local burn?
The project has been mooching about some of the Almond's wee burns of late. Burn's day (25th Jan) fell on a Saturday this year and so we thought it was the ideal opportunity to pay homage to some lesser loved burns. Two of our young community leader, Aimee-leigh and...
LCB fish pass installation
The concrete bridge apron under the A71 on the Harwood water, Polbeth, was highlighted as a barrier to fish migration after looking into mitigating the larger barrier about 500m upstream – Limefield falls. A low-cost baffle (LCB) fish pass was deemed the best option...
Willow Spiling with Friends of Polkemmet Country Park
The Friends of Polkemmet group have been carrying out small maintenance tasks within the park to improve the appearance of the park. We applied for a River Life Project Package grant to deliver a willow spiling project along the river embankment. Willow Spiling is a...
Hide and seek: exploring Limefield Falls with Polbeth Harwood Parish Church Sunday Club
‘I am prickly and hidden in the tree I fell from’. ‘I wake you up and give you a kick. I am hidden under a piece of wood’. Can you guess what these descriptions are referring to? They are just two of the inventive and cryptic clues that members of Polbeth Harwood...
Remembering ‘Our’ Falls
This striking wintery image of the frozen Limefield Falls was one of three photos kindly sent to us (artists Minty Donald and Nick Millar) by Alex Kinsman, one of the people taking part in a reminiscence workshop at Polbeth Harwood Parish Church. Fuelled by some tasty...
Volunteering Highlights
We have had a lot of volunteering activity over 2019 both in RiverLife and in the Trust, with some great achievements made by everyone involved. Volunteers are one of the most important aspects of the work of the Trust and the RiverLife project. Without the aid of all...
A ‘treasure’ hunt in Polbeth: mapping and discovering with Polbeth After School Club
Where do you find mushrooms in Polbeth? ‘The Scotmid shop!’ was the prompt reply from one of the young people taking part in a ‘Mapping and Discovering’ workshop guided by us (artists Minty Donald and Nick Millar), as part of the ‘Our’ Falls public art project. Young...
Rivers are Dynamic
Minds can be moulded at any age, and we try to show this by dusting off the river table and honing our teaching skills for high school students with Dynamic Rivers! We have been working with St Margaret’s High School in Livingston to show the higher geography classes...
Final cyanotypes workshops – The Almond’s Industrial Heritage
Artist’s Annie and Morvern held the last in the series of creative workshops on Saturday, exploring drawing & collage in creating photo prints using Cyanotype paper. This workshop took its inspiration from the industrial heritage of the Almond, and the mills which...
West Lothian Ageing Well Walkers
I have been fortunate enough to join up with the West Lothian Ageing Well Walking Group – Craigshill branch. I was warmly welcomed by the group on a previous walk at Howden where I talked about the rock ramp we created there. I decided I could crash another of their...
Cyanotypes – Painting with Light
The new interpretative artworks which will be installed at the three new fish pass sites along the Almond are beginning to take shape. Artists Annie Lord and Morvern Odling began the second stage of their collaborative works with local community members, continuing...
Final explorer walk – River Almond
The sun shone down on us for the last in our series of Explorer Walks. Artists Morvern Odling and Annie Lord led the group through a series of creative exercises. The autumnal hues in the landscape provided a rich source of inspiration and reminded us that the whole...
Official West Lothian Opening of Howden Rock Ramp
September 17th, 2019, marked the official West Lothian Council opening of the Howden Rock Ramp. This was commemorated with an array of speeches, ribbon cutting and most importantly cake. The invited guests included council members, SEPA, Forth Rivers Trust staff,...
Volunteer Electrofishing
Volunteer My Electrofishing Experience by Elspeth Smith I was able to get into the electrofishing course through the Trust which was certified by the Scottish Fisheries Co-ordination Centre (SFCC). This was a two-day course which the first day was on theory where I...
Explorer walk two – Howden Rock Ramp
On a drizzly October day a group gathered for the second Explorer Walk on the River Almond.Artists Morvern Odling and Annie Lord led the session with Jack from Forth Rivers Trustproviding his knowledge and enthusiasm about the recently completed Howden Rock Ramp.The...
Unblocktober and RiverRubbish: Raising Awareness
Raising awareness of environmental issues is always a difficult balance between action on the ground and effective use of media channels. Lots can be done on the ground, but if too little reflective material and information is disseminated then the impacts of the work...
There’s always some sewage
I knew from my training that pollution from sewage works happens, mainly as a result of our combined sewer systems in Scotland, where all water, whether from a toilet, a road drain or the garage roof, heads to the wastewater treatment works. When you think about the...
First Explorer walk along the Almond
The Kirkton fish pass is a dramatic site. A glassy, sheet of amber water which tumbles into a frothing, bubbling mass of water. Cut into the weir is the larinier fish pass, a piece of engineering which will allow trout and salmon to migrate and travel upstream, plus...
Exploring the Upper Almond
The last half a year has seen the RiverLife team start to move upstream of the river Almond, this was really due to finding a willing and eager audience for events in Whitburn and with the particularly enthusiastic Fraser, who runs Pottishaw Fishery, spurring us on....
Summer on the Almond
Most of my summers are spent organising things from Forth Rivers Trust HQ on the outskirts of Edinburgh, so I take advantage of opportunities that allow me to get outside and down to the river. We held a guided walk at the beginning of August, which due to a path...
Fundays in Polbeth & Polkemmet
The RiverLife team held a number of our Family Fun days along the rivers over the school holidays. Two highlights were the day spent at Polbeth, with over 100 people meeting some of the local fish and bugs, then heading off to Limefield falls to complete the sticker...
Craigsfarm volunteering
This month, at our regular volunteer meet up with volunteers from Craigsfarm, we ran an impromptu Freshwater Watch workshop for two volunteers. Freshwater Watch is a global initiative that allows citizen scientists to monitor the water quality of their local burn,...
RiverLife Guided Cycles
RiverLife's Guided Cycles are gaining momentum. Saturday, 28th September was our 3rd guided ride event and our second event in collaboration with West Lothian Bike Library. Our numbers increased to 11 participants, though this may have been mainly due to the fact...
Forage Walk Polkemmet
Sunday 1st September had long been earmarked in my calendar as a day to look forward to. It was another opportunity to savour the foraging and culinary skills of Szymon from Foragerium. With the change in season from late summer to early autumn, the expectation was...
Thanks Heineken
We have been working on the upper Avon for the duration of RiverLife with the aim of improving biodiversity and riverbank management. Earlier this week, we were joined by 11 volunteers from Heineken’s Edinburgh office who came to plant trees, adding to the work of...
Bogburn volunteering session 6
Heading upstream - from our meeting point in Morrisons carpark - across the adjacent wildflower meadow, our regular volunteer group have often found themselves sliding and stumbling down a steep slope before accessing the tarmac path below. This month, two regular...
All Of Our Training.
RiverLife has been busy lately. Training our volunteers is an important part of our Project and, at Forth Rivers Trust, we have wholeheartedly jumped in these last few months to train our committed volunteers in skills such as Electrofishing, Pesticides application...
9th West Lothian Scout Anglers
To gain their Angler Activity Badge, Scouts need to become familiar with different fishing techniques, necessary safety precautions and rivercraft. Over the past two years, the 9th West Lothian Scouts have been working towards their badge with the help of RiverLife...