The Essex River Wardens grabbed the runners up spot in the Natural Environment Category at the Living Waterways Awards for 2016, a fantastic achievement for a project that has only been established for a short while.

Run by the Canal and River Trust, the Living Waterways Awards celebrate the fantastic work done by individuals, communities and organisations to improve their canals, rivers, lochs and lakes. The awards are led by an independent panel of experts and the natural Environment Award is for projects that have enhanced the natural environment of our waterways, helped to create new wildlife habitats, protected threatened species or improved the quality of the water. More information about the awards can be found here: canalrivertrust.org.uk/2016-living-waterways-awards.

The Essex River Wardens scheme is run by Essex Wildlife Trust, Essex Biodiversity Project and the Catchment Partnership, which includes the Environment Agency. Incorporating Riverfly surveys, the EWT Riversearch otter and water vole survey and standardised catchment surveys, it is great to get national recognition of the hard work by all our volunteers and supporting staff. The River Warden scheme has also been nominated for the UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing, to be announced at the National Biodiversity Network Conference in November.

To find out more about our river wardens scheme click here.