Wessex Rivers Trust: healthy rivers for wildlife and people.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I have a heartfelt request to you: please help me support Wessex Rivers Trust. In July I am going to attempt the Three Peaks Challenge to raise funds for it, walking up Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis in as near to 24 hours as my 73 year old legs can manage! Even if it takes me a week, your money will be well spent on the pain and suffering.

The plight of our rivers, especially our globally important chalk streams, has received intense recent interest from the public and from the highest levels of government. The world’s most important chalk streams are found in the Wessex region of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. Wessex Rivers Trust is an environmental charity dedicated to their conservation, working towards healthy rivers for wildlife and people. Its mission is to protect them from the threats they face, restore their natural resilience and engage children and the wider public about their importance.

13 years ago I became the chair of trustees of Wessex Rivers Trust. It was small and broke! Now it has 22 employees, an annual turnover in excess of £1.3 million and a vibrant programme of river habitat improvement. It looks after key rivers like the Test, Itchen and Hampshire Avon, as well as many smaller Wessex waterbodies.

Wessex Rivers Trust also has a large educational arm working with schools and groups like the Scouts to raise awareness among children (and their teachers) about the need to care for our rivers. It does that by taking classes to the riverbank and letting pupils see what happens in and around their local streams, teaching valuable lessons about insects, fish, pollution and the need to conserve our water.

Wessex Rivers Trust is in my blood - but after all these years it will soon be time for someone else to take over the leadership of its board of trustees. Before I go I would like to raise a big slug of cash to help the trust - please give me a hand with it.

George