Our AGM was held this year on Tuesday 15th June. Members had the chance to see our new offices and to meet and chat with Trustees and staff. Our guest speaker was Michael Sutton-Croft, Coordinator of the Norfolk Non-Native Species Initiative. Michael gave an illustrated talk about non-natives in the Wensum Valley and the rest of Norfolk and how his work is attempting to minimise the impact of such species in the area.

We were able to launch our new logo at the AGM - it will be appearing shortly on our website too.

Hot on the heels of our AGM came our attendance at the Royal Norfolk Show on 30th June and 1st July. Hot sunny weather drew the crowds to Easton Showground and visitors had a chance to visit our stall and find out more about our work.  We were able to get a new banner made with our new logo in time for the show and shortly we will be launching a range of products for purchase either via our website or directly from our offices. If you haven't already noted our new address, take note of it now! We are now located at: Assembly Rooms, Ruthen Place, Dereham, NR19 2TX.

We are thrilled to be able to announce that we have successfully secured a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of 40% of the total funding needed to deliver the Wensum Community Owls Project - WenCOP. We are now working hard on securing the remaining 60%. WenCOP will allow us to map existing breeding populations of five small owl and raptor species, and work with communities along the length of the river to encourage their numbers to rise. One of the ways we promote WenCOP is to make fun masks - 'Owl Scowls' - with younger people at public events. The brightly coloured masks in this photograph were made at this year's 'Wild About the Wensum' event on May 22nd, which was held at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve. Many of you found our stall on the Goose Meadow and our 'Owl Scowl' mask-making was a hit.  

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. There will be lots of projects and events happening throughout the UK to celebrate this and the Wensum Valley Trust will be getting involved. Check our events page throughout the coming months.

The Environment Agency have been busy at Attlebridge, where they have completed river bed raising with gravels, to complement the two gravel riffles that were installed a year ago. Gravel is ideal for fish such as brown trout, chub and dace as it creates nooks and crannies within which they can lay their eggs. It is also an ideal habitat for for mayflies, stoneflies, caddis flies and water crowfoot. Riffles are gravel mounds on the river bed which cause the water to flow in ripples. This oxygenates the water and recreates the natural flow which can be lost when sections of rivers are straightened.

Following suggestions from the Wensum Valley Trust, Ringland Parish Council contacted the Environment Agency to see if work could be done to safeguard an important fish fry habitat. This work is now being carried out. The Wensum at Ringland is shallow and has a valuable natural gravel bed. However, it is a popular recreation spot and the bank has eroded as a result. This has caused the river to become too wide, with the result that silt has settled on top of the gravel, causing habitat loss for vulnerable young fish. The Environment Agency will reinstate the river bank using natural stone and gravel.