Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Vote For Our Rivers

Ralph Underhill, Our Rivers campaigner, said: “This is the first time people have had a chance to vote for the river which is closest to their heart.

So now people are being asked to go to the Our Rivers website and vote for the best river and worst river in England and Wales.

Visit www.ourrivers.org.uk to cast your vote before October 31

Why not vote for the river that is the best managed for canal boat holidays? The Thames, Ouse, River Avon, River Calder, Great Ouse, Medway Stour, Trent, etc ?

Best River, Worst River - Vote now!

The Our Rivers campaign is asking people in England and Wales to vote for the best and worst rivers.

The Our Rivers campaign was set up by a group of NGOs - WWF, RSPB, and the Angling Trust in 2009 when the Environment Agency published draft River Basin Management Plans that set out the future of river management up to 2015 and beyond.

Our Rivers felt the plans didn't go far enough and were unnecessarily bureaucratic. They felt that crowdsourcing knowledge from the population upwards would be much better.

After the official process the Our Rivers campaign re-launched with the Salmon and Trout Association onboard as well.

Now they are seeking wider involvement with Philippa Forrester heading a publicity initiative while she is currently a TV series - Halcyon River Diaries on BBC1.

Philippa Forrester said: “Living close to a river, I get to see an amazing array of life from the emergence of mayflies in spring to the darting flash of a hunting kingfisher and the secretive habits of the water vole.”

The Our Rivers campaign was launched last year to fight for clean and healthy rivers shortly before a Government report revealed 74 per cent were failing to meet EU environmental targets.

Ralph Underhill, Our Rivers campaigner, said: “This is the first time people have had a chance to vote for the river which is closest to their heart.

So now people are being asked to go to the Our Rivers website and vote for the best river and worst river in England and Wales.

Visit www.ourrivers.org.uk to cast your vote before October 31