North Devon and Torridge Climate Forum Saturday 7th February.
The forum aimed to discuss Water quality and Biodiversity and the way forward. Report by Jennie Wright
Speakers:
Matt Worthington from The West Country Rivers Trust -Citizen Science and the Bigger Picture.
Will Frost from North Devon Biosphere -Presenting and Interrogating Water Quality Data
Sally Ransden from the Taw and Torridge River Champions – The Work of T & T River Champions
There were three councillors present.
Councillor Mark Haworth Booth started the event by reading out an appropriate poem from the book ‘Crow’ by Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes was a founder member of the West Country Rivers Trust along with Stuart Gardiner.
Mark H-B briefly gave a synopsis of WCRT’s history.
It would be impossible to write everything that was talked about. There were a lot of pie charts and graphs. It was a very informative and interesting Forum.
All present were active conservationists and a majority were involved in water testing.
The whole event was recorded, however the recording quality was poor and recordings are not available. If we can obtain more information from the meeting we will publish more details here.
Each speaker referred to the importance of citizen Science and the lack of funding. The water testing kits are expensive and this testing is only the first step in the gathering of information. There was a mention of the importance of taking Citizen Science into schools, as there is a dearth of students choosing Science as a subject.
It was heartening however to learn of all the research that was currently happening in North Devon and Torridge. It was also heartening to see the willingness of the different organisations to collaborate and work together.
Not surprisingly there was mention of flooding issues are fast becoming Top priority.