Ribble Rivers Trust

Ribble Rivers Trust Local charity restoring rivers and wildlife habitats across Lancashire and North Yorkshire. Working with communities to help nature thrive.

🌊 Knowing what to do can make all the difference.If you spend time around rivers or open water, understanding how to sta...
31/05/2026

🌊 Knowing what to do can make all the difference.

If you spend time around rivers or open water, understanding how to stay safe, and how to respond in an emergency, is essential.

If someone is in trouble in the water:
📱 Call 999 immediately
🚫 Don’t enter the water yourself
🛟 Try to help from the bank using something to reach or throw

Rivers can change quickly, and even strong swimmers can get into difficulty.
That’s why building awareness early matters.

Each year, we deliver hands‑on water safety sessions in schools, helping young people:
🤔 understand how rivers behave
👀 recognise risks
🛟 and practise what to do if something goes wrong

These sessions are
✅ practical
✅ supportive
✅ focused on building confidence around water

👉 If your school would like to take part, we still have limited availability for sessions, and we’d love to hear from you
✉️ Drop us an email at [email protected]

Find out more about staying safe around rivers here:
🔗 ribbletrust.org.uk/water-safety-our-guide-to-river-safety/

💧 Spending time by the river this weekend? We know how important rivers are to people, especially in a heatwave, but the...
30/05/2026

💧 Spending time by the river this weekend?

We know how important rivers are to people, especially in a heatwave, but they can also be unpredictable.

Recent events are a reminder that open water is very different from pools. Even on warm days, rivers can be:
🧊 colder than they appear
🌊 deeper or faster‑flowing than expected
🛒 affected by hidden hazards below the surface

Designated bathing waters are monitored and generally safer, but they are still natural environments and not risk‑free.

If you’re heading out this weekend:
🪜 choose safe, known access points
🏊‍♀️ avoid jumping or diving into unknown water
👀 look out for others, especially children
🚫 trust your instincts- if something doesn’t feel right, stay out

Alongside this, we work with schools across the catchment, delivering water safety sessions to hundreds of pupils every year.

Our work is helping young people understand rivers, recognise risks, and know what to do in an emergency.

👉 If your school would like to take part, we still have limited availability for sessions, and we’d love to hear from you
✉️ Drop us an email at [email protected]

Find out more about staying safe around rivers here:
🔗 ribbletrust.org.uk/water-safety-our-guide-to-river-safety/

Rivers reflect everything that happens around them. 💦It travels as rain across farmland, through towns, along roads and ...
29/05/2026

Rivers reflect everything that happens around them. 💦

It travels as rain across farmland, through towns, along roads and drains- picking up traces of everything it passes over along the way.

That’s why improving water quality isn’t something we can do alone.

This year, we’ve worked with over 80 farmers, offering advice, finding grants, and giving them support to;
🌱 reduce runoff
💧 manage nutrients
🌿 create space for water to move naturally

That’s already led to 25 on-the-ground projects
🌳improving habitats
🌊slowing water
🦠 reducing the issues that can affect bathing waters

Because when water is managed well across the land, rivers, and the people who enjoy them, benefit.

It’s a shared effort- and it makes a real difference 🩵

Our volunteers make our work possible 👏Have you ever thought about dipping your toe into the world of river restoration?...
29/05/2026

Our volunteers make our work possible 👏

Have you ever thought about dipping your toe into the world of river restoration? Join us at our next event:

📅 Sunday 7th June
🕙10 am – 4.00 pm
📍Slaidburn Village Hall, BB7 3ES
👉 tickettailor.com/events/ribbleriverstrust/2138417

This event will investigate water and habitat quality in around the Upper Hodder Catchment, where thanks to the success of our recent crowdfunding campaign we’ll;
🌳 restore habitats
🐟 improve spawning streams
👨🏻‍🧑🏾‍👧🏼‍👦🏽 work with local communities to care for the river long into the future

This work feeds directly into our projects, where improving water and habitat quality will support wildlife for years to come 🩵

Hot weather isn’t just tough for us- it’s tough for wildlife too.As temperatures rise, rivers, ponds and green spaces ca...
28/05/2026

Hot weather isn’t just tough for us- it’s tough for wildlife too.

As temperatures rise, rivers, ponds and green spaces can come under real pressure. Water levels drop, habitats shrink, and animals have to work harder to stay cool and find food.

The good news is that there are simple ways we can all help.

Here are a few easy things you can do:
💧 Put out water for wildlife- a shallow dish can be a lifeline for birds, insects and small mammals
🌱 Create shade and cover- longer grass, hedges and plants help creatures stay cool
🪵 Leave quiet, wild spaces- log piles and undisturbed corners give wildlife somewhere to shelter
🚿 Top up your pond- rainwater from a water butt is best, but a little tap water is fine too
🌿 Water at the right time- early morning or evening helps plants and insects

Small changes like these help support the wider ecosystem, including rivers, by keeping habitats connected and giving wildlife a better chance during dry periods.

👉 Read more:
ribbletrust.org.uk/5-tips-for-keeping-wildlife-cool/

Join a team working together to improve rivers across the Ribble catchment. 🩵Behind all our river restoration projects i...
28/05/2026

Join a team working together to improve rivers across the Ribble catchment. 🩵

Behind all our river restoration projects is an amazing team of people who are working on the ground, building partnerships, and connecting communities to their local rivers.

We’re currently recruiting across several roles as we expand our work.

Whether it’s delivering projects, working with landowners, engaging communities, or supporting partnerships, every role contributes to improving rivers for people and wildlife.

If you’re looking for a role where:
👀 your work has visible impact
🙌 collaboration is at the heart of what you do
📅 no two days are quite the same

Take a look at our current vacancies👇
ribbletrust.org.uk/job-vacancies

🦦 Happy World Otter Day to one of our favourite river residents! 🦦Did you know…💦 Otters have extremely dense, waterproof...
27/05/2026

🦦 Happy World Otter Day to one of our favourite river residents! 🦦

Did you know…
💦 Otters have extremely dense, waterproof fur that helps them stay warm even in cold rivers
🌍 They depend on clean, well connected rivers with plenty of food and secluded riverbanks
🤯 An otter can close its ears and nostrils underwater- perfect for hunting beneath the surface

Otters are a vital part of a healthy, functioning river ecosystem, helping to keep everything in a delicate balance that nature has perfected over thousands of years.

For a long time, otters were wrongly persecuted and driven to the brink of extinction in the UK- largely due to hunting and pollution.

Their return is one of the UK’s great conservation success stories, and a sign that our rivers are beginning to recover.

That’s because healthy rivers support a diverse, resilient fish population that can sustain both wildlife and recreational use.

So, if otters are present, it usually means the river is in a healthy, functioning state that can support them.

That’s why our work to create cleaner water, better habitats, and more connected rivers benefits everything- from fish populations to the species that depend on them. 🩵

♻️ Same place. Same week. Very different outcomes.Places like Stainforth Force are some of the Ribble’s most loved beaut...
27/05/2026

♻️ Same place. Same week. Very different outcomes.

Places like Stainforth Force are some of the Ribble’s most loved beauty spots, especially on sunny weekends and school holidays.

But once everyone has gone home, this is what’s often left behind.

This litter doesn’t appear on its own, and it’s not someone else’s responsibility to clear it up.

When rubbish is left behind:
💦 it’s blown or washed into rivers
🦔 it harms wildlife and habitats
👥 it leaves places worse for the next person

There isn’t a clean‑up team following every visitor. If you’ve brought it with you, it’s your responsibility to take it away.

👉 Take it home. Use a bin. Leave no trace.

Looking after these places isn’t someone else’s job, it’s a responsibility we all share.

Thank you to everyone who already does the right thing 🩵

If we want to understand our rivers, we have to stop, and pay attention! 💦👀That’s exactly what our citizen scientists ar...
27/05/2026

If we want to understand our rivers, we have to stop, and pay attention! 💦👀

That’s exactly what our citizen scientists are doing!

On an atmospheric cloudy day on the moors our volunteers ventured out into the uplands to collect and test water samples from sites on Darwen Moor.

Through our citizen science events, we collect data to assess how our Natural Flood Management work is impacting water quality, so that the wider project benefits are understood and appreciated.

And that’s the key.
We don’t just carry out natural flood management; we measure what happens afterwards.

Peat restoration, wetlands, flood plain reconnections, and leaky dams are all helping to hold water in the landscape, slow the flow, and rewet soils.

But it’s the data that tells us how that’s affecting the river itself.

This information won’t just benefit our local rivers.

It will also feed into a national evidence base showing the impact of NFM, helping to shape and support future projects across the country.

Our next water quality testing event in Darwen will be in the summer, where we will continue to build up our dataset.

Sign up to our weekly volunteering emails to stay in the know 👇
ribbletrust.org.uk/volunteer/

A huge thanks go out to our citizen scientists who took part, and to JCPhotography for capturing the event!

This work is part of our Community Catchments NFM project, funded by the Environment Agency NFM Programme, helping to build a national evidence base showing the benefits that NFM can deliver.

Did you know that clear water doesn’t always mean a healthy river? 🤔It’s instinct to think that if a river looks clean, ...
26/05/2026

Did you know that clear water doesn’t always mean a healthy river? 🤔

It’s instinct to think that if a river looks clean, it must be safe, but rivers can carry things we can’t see. 🦠

Bacteria, nutrients, and pollutants don’t always change how water looks, but they can still affect wildlife and the people who spend time near or in the river.

That’s why we spend so much time monitoring our rivers, the water, and the landscapes around them, because understanding water quality isn’t about appearances-
it’s about what’s happening beneath the surface.

When we understand that, we can start to protect both people and the river itself. 🩵

👉 Find out what bathing water status really means:
ribbletrust.org.uk/edisford-bridge-bathing-water-status-and-what-it-means-for-you/

Address

Clitheroe

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+441200444452

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