£1 million boost to improve rivers around Morecambe Bay (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

£1 million boost to improve rivers around Morecambe Bay

2:29pm Wednesday 19th September 2012 in News

A MAJOR new conservation initiative has been awarded more than £1million in Government funding to improve rivers, and their tributaries, around Morecambe Bay.

Water quality in rivers like the Duddon and Lune has been affected by pollution from land, and modifications to channels have also caused obstructions to fish movement.

Poor water quality has a detrimental effect on a range of wetland wildlife, from insects and fish, to birds and mammals, as well as on local people.

The Source to Sea Programme, supported by five conservation organisations – the RSPB, Lune Rivers Trust, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Morecambe Bay Partnership, and the Arnside and Silverdale AONB Partnership – has been given £1.1m from the Environment Agency through the Government’s Catch-ment Restoration Fund.

Over the next two-and-a-half years, Source to Sea will deliver a number of projects to tackle water quality issues. It will work with land managers to modify nutrient and water management on farms, and restore priority habitats to reduce the impact of pollution, and improve the landscape.

Other projects will include opening up routes to former spawning areas for migratory fish, and raising public awareness about bathing water, and the issues that can affect its quality.

Tim Youngs, from the Source to Sea programme, said: “We are delighted the Catch-ment Restoration Fund has provided us with the resources to carry out this much-needed conservation work.

“By tackling water quality issues, from the source of a watercourse all the way down to the sea, we will work together to take a holistic approach to water catchment management, and restore priority habitat on a landscape scale which, in turn, will provide a lifeline to several priority species, including Atlantic salmon, European eels and curlews.”