Community Event with Woolsington Parish Council
Community engagement events are a great way for us to meet new river guardians and for people of all ages to get a deeper insight into the work we do.
We were delighted to host a community event with Woolsington Parish Council recently. This was the third of our community engagement events. All are part of our biodiversity project, aimed at protecting and enhancing the area in and around the Parish Ponds and the Upper Ouseburn, for the benefit of both nature and people.
Over 40 adults and children enjoyed learning about our river, the Ouseburn, its importance and how to look after it. There were plenty of fun activities to enjoy, plus the opportunity for some enthusiasts to get wet! Our thanks to Ann Stevenson for capturing photos of the day. A £2,500 grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland is helping to fund new projects.
The river model is a 3D interactive model which simulates rain and river flow. It’s a great way to bring our mission and message to life about how we can protect rivers and reduce flooding.
We also encouraged visitors to take part in invertebrate sampling – using sweep nets for river dipping and trays for kick
sampling to learn what`s in the river, on the day we were pleased to find lots of Stickleback fish.
We also brought along our Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) house model which is a great learning tool showing users how to conserve water in our homes and gardens and help the environment.
We finished the day off with a Q&A and art competition, we’ll share a few of our favourites below…
