INISHOWEN RIVER GUARDIANS
A River Guardian is a volunteer from the community who is trained to survey, monitor and restore the rivers, lakes and coastal areas of Inishowen.
River GuardiansInishowen Rivers Guardians. can take on a variety of roles – collecting data and returning information to the IRT, helping out on restoration projects and helping to increase our knowledge of our rivers and how we can best protect them.
2021 Programme
For 2021 the Trust have a new and exciting programme of courses to offer which have been funded by Rethink Ireland’s Innovate Together Award. Due to the current Covid restrictions we need to be flexible about how we work and learn and we have developed a blended approach to the programme. This year we will offer webinars, online guided tutorials, instructional videos, face-to-face outdoor training and perhaps even good old fashioned posting of material!
The events and training for 2021 are well underway. Courses book up quickly and we are often asked how they can find out when the courses registrations are released. There are several ways you can do this:
1. Follow us on Facebook
2. Follow us on our Eventbrite channel
3. Register as a volunteer
When you sign up as a volunteer (Volunteer Registration Form) you will get a direct email about the courses on offer. Our Training co-ordinator, Bren, will register your interest and provide all the information you need to do the course. He can also keep you informed of volunteer opportunities where you can put your new skills into practice.
Contact Bren@inishowenriverstrust.com for more information.
list of the upcoming courses
A list of the upcoming courses are available here for download. Please note courses details (including dates) are subject to change. Please contact us for bookings details.
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Rethink Ireland Funding for River Guardians
Dec 11 2020 – WOW! We’ve just been awarded funding from Rethink Ireland’s INNOVATE TOGETHER FUND to expand our Inishowen River Guardians Programme. It’s been a very busy time preparing for this funding and we’re very excited about 2021. Hope you can join us!
Drainage & River Management Webinar
23 November 2020 An excellent evening with Ken Whelan and Rosemary McCloskey at our recent webinar (19th Nov 2020) discussing drainage in relation to river management. Lots of interesting questions posed by the audience ranging from engineering, biodiversity and natural solutions.
Drainage Webinar
November 2020 – Join us online as we invite Prof. Ken Whelan and Dr. Rosemary McCloskey to discuss drainage and water management issues and how this impacts on rivers.
The Hills of Inishowen
7th, 10th & 11th October 2020 – On a wet and windy Saturday morning, a group of hardy volunteers met outside of Carndonagh for the start of a weekend of mountain skills training with expert trainer Bren Whelan. Our group had already met on the previous Wednesday night when we listened to Inga Bock, Donegal […]
Leave No Trace / Mountaineering Skills Training
Coming October 2020 – The Inishowen Rivers Trust are delighted to announce our next River Guardians training module Leave No Trace with Mountaineering and Mapping Skills. This will be a very interesting and practical look at working outdoors, searching for rivers using a map and compass and dealing with the elements during the day and in dark conditions.
Riparian Rights & Responsibilities
19 Sept 2020 – The Inishowen Rivers Trust were delighted to welcome two highly knowledgeable speakers to our Riparian Rights & Responsibilities discussion held recently in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel, Buncrana. Solicitor Paul McMahon from McMahon Legal, has written extensively on the subject of riparian rights and Rural Recreation Officer, Inga Bock, has many years […]
Riverine Visit to Inishowen
On Sunday 9th August 2020, a group from the Strabane/Lifford area travelled to Inishowen to chat about all things riverine. The group have come together to discover, explore and protect their diverse region for the benefit of environmental protection and the IRT were delighted to welcome them to Inishowen.
Heritage Hike to celebrate Water Heritage Day 2020
August 2020 – Local heritage expert, Dessie McCallion, will lead a heritage hike of the Meendoran and Lough Fad area above Clonmany village on Sunday 23rd August to celebrate Water Heritage Day.
Community Collaboration on Nature Based Solutions
July 23rd 2020 – Members of the Clonmany community came together in the Community Centre on Thursday night July 23rd to discuss nature based solutions (NBS) for flood management with flood experts Prof Mary Bourke, Trinity College and Dr. Paul Quinn, University of Newcastle. Prof. Bourke linked in via Zoom to deliver a presentation that […]
New Project Officer
July 2020 – We are delighted to announce that Trish Murphy has become the first Project Officer for the Inishowen Rivers Trust, a newly created role that represents a significant step forward for rivers trusts in Ireland. Trish was a founding director of the Trust and has been involved in a voluntary capacity since it […]
The Development of the Inishowen River Guardians Programme
In 2018/2019 the IRT were awarded funding through the EU Leader Programme to offer a range of training modules. The modules were open to all participants who wished to get involved with the work of the Trust and the following courses were completed.
Riverfly Monitoring (ARMI Training)
Small Stream Characterisation Course (Atlantic Salmon Trust)
Electrofishing
Bank Erosion Control
Hydromorphology
Invasive Species Control
ArcGIS Online
Chainsaw Certification
These courses ran between December 2018 and October 2019 and the programme was a resounding success with 77 course places taken up by volunteers.
Due to the success of the programme, the IRT Board of Directors were keen to deliver more training and were delighted to be recipients of Rethink Ireland’s Innovate Together Award announced in December 2020. This new round of funding will help to to develop a new programme delivering additional courses (some old, some new) to further enhance the skills and knowledge of our volunteers. These new courses will be delivered using a blended learning approach, mixing instructional video, live online workshops and outdoor field trips. Dependent on Covid-19 restrictions, we hope to run these courses between April and September 2021.
If you would like to find out more about training with the Trust, please call 087 647 8183 or email inishowenriverstrust@gmail.com.
