Glenavy Conservation and Angling Club are awarded £7446 by Big Lottery
Glenavy Conservation and Angling Club held their Riverfly Monitoring Training on Saturday 9th September on the Glenavy River for their Glenavy River Rescue project. The club would like to thank the Big Lottery who made this all possible. Lisa Kirkwood NI ARMI Co-ordinator delivered the training on behalf of Ballinderry Rivers Trust. Meredith Thompson, local catchment officer for DAERA also attended and provided advice and support to the group. The club’s conservation team say they are firmly committed to carrying out Riverfly monitoring on the Glenavy River on a monthly basis reporting back to DAERA. Barbara McGeown Treasurer for the club said that ” The Glenavy River has had 3 major pollution incidents in recent years and through the funding support from Big Lottery we have now established the Glenavy River Rescue project which includes our River fly monitoring initiative, helping us to identify changes in the water and in time this could help to reduce serious incidents of pollution. “
This Glenavy River Rescue project will continue with the help of partners The Glenavy Youth Project (GYP), with river clean up events and a waste art project to give young people a better understanding of the aquatic life in the Glenavy river and the importance of waste reycling. (Attached photo of artwork made from plastic bottle tops)
The Angler’s Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is a UK wide community scheme where fishing clubs and other interested parties monitor invertebrates to assess the biological water quality of their local river. This scheme is widely supported by the NI Angling Federation and its members of which the Glenavy Conservation and Angling club are part of.