 on in the Angrenan Hotel in Burt this coming Thursday evening. It's called What's Happening on Ineshawn Rivers. It's a public event and it's bringing together groups from across Ineshawn and beyond to talk about rivers, river management and to take a look at what's happening locally to protect our rivers. And Claire Thompson from the Ineshawn Rivers Trust now joins me in the studio. Claire, good afternoon to you. Thanks for coming in. Hello. We hear from time to time quite a bit about Ineshawn Rivers Trust. This is something I suppose this isn't unique to Ineshawn. This is something we should all be concerned about about the management of our rivers. Why? Well, there's a lot of pressure on our rivers from human activity. And the quality of the water is in decline and the biodiversity of the rivers is affected. So all the wee bulks, the macroinvertebrates that live in the river are affected and of course the fish as well. So water quality obviously affects our drinking water as well. So when I was growing up and would be out playing a moment I would always say, just don't be drinking out of the river. We always did. Yes. And we were fine. You couldn't do that anymore? Not really, no. I mean, obviously there are still we still are fortunate enough to have some pockets of blue dock rivers, but they're few and far between. Why has it changed so much over the years? Because of the pressures on the river. So there's pressures from farming practices and building houses in not great places and discharge effluent into the rivers, climate change, forestry, you know, there's a number of pressures, biodiversity, the habitat is basically being destroyed. And so all of these things individually and collectively kind of put a lot of pressure on the water. And so we're working as hard as we can to raise awareness, run education events as well as doing practical things to help the river restoration works and so forth. You say practical things. You're a volunteer. What does that entail? Well, this obviously as a volunteer, you can get as involved with as much time or as little depending on what you have. So we've we've built up over the over the last six, seven years, we've we've built up quite a good team of volunteers. And we we all look forward to getting out and planting trees or doing revetment works, which is where we stabilise the river banks using natural materials, rather than those big concrete structures that you sometimes see. And there's always cups of tea involved and lots of good crack, you know, so yeah, it's really, really lovely to get involved. So protecting river banks in that way is more environmentally friendly, obviously. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you're creating a habitat rather than Yeah, why are trees so good? Well, the trees absorb an awful lot of water. So they help in a flooding situation, particularly if you improve the soil as well underneath. And then obviously, they are habitat as well, they host, they support a large amount of animals. And they help stabilise the bank. So the root structure holds the bank together and makes it less prone to erosion. I mean, the bad flooding is still afresh in many people's mines. And looking after our rivers, part of it is about protecting against future incidents like that. And it's also about looking after the quality of water that's in the rivers. Yeah, flooding will always happen. And the flooding event I myself was flooded in 2017 was very difficult for inner showing. And the Rivers Trust was kind of really just getting going when we did our original event in on green and that was six years ago now. Who's who doesn't seem like that long ago. But yeah, flooding is an issue and the Rivers Trust has piloted the first natural flood management project in Ireland. So we've had the nation's eyes on us. We've been working way in the clomani area, looking at natural ways to deal with with flooding and flood risk and so forth. And that will also be part of this event on Thursday, people be able to find out more about that. The inaugural event, as you mentioned there, who's who in the shown rivers? Was that before or after the flood? That was before the flood. So the flood was in the August and who's who was in the February. So it's all six years almost to the day actually that we're hosting this next event. So this event now on Thursday, I presume part of it will be looking at what's been achieved and what's changed over the six years. Yeah, and there's been changes in science. And then we've also done an awful lot of projects. So it'll be a chance to look at the work that we've done. And not just us there's a whole range of different groups coming community groups and state agencies. So it's going to be looking at the work that they do, who they are, what their remit is, as well as looking forward. So, you know, what projects are coming down the pipeline as well. So things to get involved with. And it we're hoping to bring together a real collaborative approach to it. It's going to be sort of like a fair, you know, there's going to be stalls and presentations. And yeah, so it should be really lovely, actually. Well, I suppose no one person or no one group, you know, has all the answers and can provide all the solutions. So it's a combined effort. But haven't been affected by the flood yourself. And seeing the devastation that they caused six years on now. And, you know, you've been involved in some of this work. And, you know, can you can you see the difference that it's made? Can you see the changes that it's made? Are you happy with progress? Well, obviously, there's always room for more. We'd like we'd like it to go a lot faster. And it's, yes, I can see changes in individual areas where we've been working. There's a lot more to do is a lot more education needed. And, you know, we can only chip away with it. We're, we're very fortunate to have the support of law pro, the local authority water program and the EPA and the IFI and the locks agency. And they they all support our work. But yeah, and there's always room for more volunteers if anybody listening wants to come along. Like so much in nature, I suppose River is something that we we take for granted. There's always been there. We love a river walk and we love to stand beside a brook or whatever. But they, you know, they have to be managed and they have to be protected. Yeah, definitely need to be protected. And sort of loved really, and for people to have a real connection to the river. And I think the more involved you get, and the more awareness you have, the better the outcome for the river. And the trust is all about linking together our communities, you know, people and place and nature and linking all that together so that people can invest their time and their effort into creating something beautiful for everybody, not just humans, but other than humans as well. That'd be very important to us. If somebody's listening in now and they have they have really no connection to rivers other than knowing the one that's nearest them or crossing one in a bridge or going for a walk along one or whatever. What can they expect on Thursday evening? What's going to be there? So there's going to be a keynote address by Dr Liam Campbell, which is on the heritage. He's done a PhD on the foil system. So he's going to give us the main address. And then there's going to be various other groups who are presenting their work of projects that that have happened, both community groups such as the initial development partnership and eco Khan and the Mill River Conservation Group, people like that, and then some presentations from the agencies as well. And there'll be cups of tea and chat. Tea is really important to us. Everybody loves a refreshment. OK, so it's in a greening hotel in Bordeaux called What's Happening on Anishone Rivers? And it's this sort of state. It starts at six. And it's free. Free. Yeah, it's free. Yeah, six till nine thirty and you can register a place. There's no fee, but you register a place on our website in a show in rivers just dot com. And we're on social media as well. So you'll find the event bright link on the Facebook page and Twitter. And if somebody can't make it along on Thursday evening, but still want maybe to find out more or maybe to volunteer the info is online as well. It is. Yeah, get in touch. We'd love to we love to hear from people. And we have a field trip the following morning as well, three hour field trip going round to actually physically visit some of the projects. So there's a boss involved with that. So that requires booking as well. That's all on the website. OK, best look with a clear. Thank you very much, Sean.