Team Work Makes The Dream Work
Tyne Rivers Trust is made up of a team of experts who are passionate about the health of the River Tyne and its tributaries and have built up a specialist knowledge of its unique hydrology and biology. We have a highly skilled team and continuous learning is an important part of our work.
Our time is split across projects of varying timescales and complexities. For example, our Native North Tyne project celebrates what’s interesting and unique about the River North Tyne and the River Rede which sit at the top of the Tyne catchment. It helps people get out and discover the local landscape, as well as the unique and endangered species that are only found in this part of our river. Project Manager Yve is often out on the river training volunteers to competently carry out electro-fishing and white-clawed crayfish surveys.
Head further down the catchment to the River Don in South Tyneside and you’ll find Urban Catchment Project Manager Maddy at work with local communities as part of our ‘Total River Therapy’ project. During 2023 and 2024, we are engaging with community groups on the River Don by offering opportunities to connect with their local river.
We could be creating a new wetland with our Catchment Habitat Adviser Jamie, or reducing the environmental impacts from historic metal mines in the North Pennines with our Tyne Mining Legacy Project Manager Martin – but wherever we are research plays a key role in project planning. Sometimes we have to go with intuition and get something done on the ground, monitor it and make improvements, and on other occasions we need to conduct research very carefully to be able to make improvements.
Team work makes our ‘dream’ of protecting the Tyne rivers work, behind the scenes we might rely on:
- eDNA signals from freshwater pearl mussels and white-clawed crayfish
- Fine sediment fingerprinting (sediment fingerprinting technology relies upon identifying significant differences in the chemical properties of soil from different sediment sources.)
- We’re looking into carrying out work on salmon genetic analysis
- Electrofishing which involves gathering fisheries data to understand fish populations and identify reasons why they might be lower than expected (e.g due to the presence of a barrier, poor tree cover or habitat)
If you are interested in joining our team, please contact us for a list of current vacancies, or consider joining us a volunteer.
Find out more about volunteering with Tyne Rivers Trust here.
