This year's Ribble Forum is taking place on Thursday 20th November at the Harris Conference Centre, Garstang Road, Preston. The event will look at a range of projects and developments throughout the Ribble catchment, including:

• The breach of the sea defences at Hesketh Outmarsh 
• The River Douglas Crossing design competition
• United Utilities improvements to river water quality

Throughout the morning there will be opportunities to ask questions of the speakers, and that's where you come in. You can submit your question in advance by leaving a comment below (click on 'Comments'), and we'll provide you with a copy on the day. Of course, if the forum raises a new question for you, you're welcome to ask a fresh question then as well......

Don't forget to leave your name and organisation, so that we know who's asking what!

If you haven't done so already, you can book to attend the forum by CLICKING HERE.

"Fourteen managers from MWH, an international company connected to the water industry with offices throughout Britain, volunteered at Wybunbury Moss National Nature Reserve (NNR) as part of MWH Mersey Basin Week.

They cut down small trees and scrub that has invaded a flower-rich meadow purchased by Natural England last year. The meadow forms part of the Site of Special Scientific Interest at Wybunbury Moss which was, owing to years of neglect by its previous owner, in poor condition.  The work carried out is a vital contribution towards improving the condition of the meadow and enabling the plant community present there to survive.

The MWH managers, staff from the Mersey Basin Campaign and their Natural England staff supervisors worked hard and have cleared about a third of the scrub on the meadow.

Sarah Warrener,Natural England's site manager at Wybunbury Moss, explained that there are several different habitats at Wybunbury Moss NNR. If the trees and scrub remain untouched the bog, fen and meadow plants would be lost and the site would become a woodland.  This would also have a negative affect on the rare and unusual insects and other invertebrates that currently live on the site, for example the rare beetle Cryptocephalus decemmaculatus, that is found only at Wybunbury Moss and one other site in Britain."

Thanks to Sarah, Hannah and Tony from Natural England for hosting the day and to Andrew Cowell, Kath Hart and the rest of the MWH team for all their effort and support

But it wasn't the middle of the latest sci-fi adventure - it was a local group of youngsters doing their bit for MWH Mersey Basin Week by cleaning up the estate.  Lead by Zul Hussain, Fishwick Rangers turned out in brilliant fancy-dress costumes to free the streets of litter.

With all those super heroes around the litter should be banished for a long time!

Well done Fishwick Rangers for showing that improving the environment can be fun.  May the Force be with you.

….a hot-pot dinner!  Well at least you would have if you helped clean-up watercourses in Whaley Bridge for MWH Mersey Basin Week this year.

Seventeen people turned out for the weekend events that were organised by Whaley Bridge Amenity Society and the Friends of the Memorial Park.  However, because of the recent downpours, the litter pickers were confined to the banks and sadly did not get to use their waders.

Above: Cllrs Tony and Andrew Bingham and Bert Bowles

High Peak Borough Council Parks department supported the events by helping with publicity, equipment and a lorry to take the rubbish away.

Other events organised by the Society during the week were guided walks along the Peak Forest Canal to Bugsworth Basin and to Brookfield Pond Local Nature Reserve and Todd Brook Reservoir.

This was one of four Stockport primary schools and 174 children that were supported by MWH Mersey Basin Week grants to participate in the river field studies organised by the Longdendale Environmental Education Centre.  This is a service run by a partnership between United Utilities and the Peak District National Park Authority.

We travelled to the beautiful Crowden Valley in Longdendale where, guided and inspired by leaders Sarah and Chris, we learned at first hand the special qualities of the Peak District and the features of the babbling upland streams.

The children composed poems about their favourite views and found their own ‘magic spot’ to both experience and sketch the river landscape.  21 vivacious children suddenly became quiet for the first time that day and this was a truly inspiring experience.

The highlight of the trip, for the children, was the river dipping.  Equipped with nets, trays and hand lenses, no stone went unturned in the search for mini-beasts.

The trip was nicely rounded up by locating the places and features we had talked about on a giant floor map of the Mersey Basin.  The children then created their own ‘River Symphony’ using the centre’s junk instruments.

The feedback on the visit from the teachers was extremely positive.  One school mentioned that the grant and the free service of the Longdendale Environmental Education Centre had enabled them to do such a trip for the first time in seven years.

Huge thanks go out to Jo, Sarah and Chris at the Longdendale Environmental Education Centre who put so much work into making the trips a success.  I would also like to thank Amanda Kelly, Primary Curriculum Consultant at Stockport MBC, for helping promote the sessions to the schools.

For more information about the services of the Longdendale Environmental Education Centre, telephone 01457 868127.

As part of Mersey Basin Week 2008, October 9^th saw the start of the 3^rd annual Manchester Oriental Organisations Alliance (MOOA) Canal Walk. The weather was beautiful and we had a great turnout, with 20 Chinese Elders attending.

We all met at the Chinese Arch in the city centre and after a quick health and safety talk by Sarah Flynn and a few photos (with the addition of a local policeman!), we set off towards Canal Street.

Beside the canal, Freya Cheshire gave a brief talk on the Rochdale Canal’s history, helpfully translated by Kin Cheng. We then set off along the towpath stopping at key points for Freya to give information about Manchester’s history and the significance of the canal in shaping it into the world’s first modern city.

Most of the information used in the talks was taken from the recently launched Hear Manchester website (www.hearmanchester.com) which contains 10 audio files designed to be downloaded and listened to whilst walking alongside the canal. The audio files include interviews with local experts and cover different aspects of Manchester’s fascinating and varied history.

As the sun shone, we came to Dukes’ 92 in Castlefield where we were lucky enough to see a canal boat being transported through the lock. Everyone stood and watched as the boat entered the Bridgewater Canal and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the locks working.

After a brief rest, we took a slight detour around the Grocers Warehouse arm of the Bridgewater Canal and then rejoined the Rochdale to make our way back towards Oxford Road.

After the walk, we had all worked up an appetite so we walked to Tai Wu on Oxford Road and sat down to the most delicious Chinese meal containing lots of traditional dim sum dishes. It was a brilliant end to a thoroughly successful walk.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Bev Mitchell for helping to organise the walk and to Kin for acting as our translator, and thank you to all the Elders who attended, it made it really enjoyable.

After the first few tentative steps, people were soon up to their waist in pond water with vegetation flying in all directions!  There was time, however, to rescue a small toad and make sure it got safely home. 

Great team work produced two truck loads of reeds and 13 very mucky and hungry people.  After a quick clean up, a fabulous feast was soon demolished at Burnage Rugby Club.

The group then went on a tour of some of the lesser known sites of Stockport.  Merseyway shopping centre was the first stop: not for some retail therapy (shame!) but to go underground to visit the source of the river Mersey, some 65 feet below.

The tour, lead by Merseyway Shopping Centre, revealed many fascinating facts about the river:  like the numerous colonies of bats living in the culvert;  fish species such as Roach, Chubb, Barbel, Gudgeon and the mighty Atlantic Salmon are now found in the river due to improvements in water quality.  Otters have also been spotted both up and downstream of the shopping centre.

Next on the list was Stockport Art Gallery to see the photographic exhibition, ‘Mersey: the river that changed the world’.  The exhibition in Stockport has an added local flavour with features on local characters.

There were very positive comments about the varied programme of the day and we would particularly like to thank Rachel Bennett, Louise Murphy and Jo Ward from Stockport MBC; Bob Russell and Rebecca Tabener from Merseyway and Andy Green from Burnage Rugby Club for all their help.

There was also the chance to help plant some plug plants like Cowslips next to where the ground was being rotavatored ready for the wild flower seeds. Throughout the day more and more people came to visit and just as we were packing away more people came to see the display boards!

We hope that everybody that came had a great time and thank you for coming.

The event was organised as part of MWH Mersey Basin Week, by landowners Stockport MBC and Action Etherow and Goyt.

Poise Brook woodland is a beautiful yet little visited Local Nature Reserve just two miles from Stockport town centre.  Following the production of a management plan, a successful £12,000 Greening Greater Manchester bid was submitted by Stockport MBC.  This has allowed woodland management work to be carried out and new seating and interpretation to be installed.

The woodland management has involved removal of many of the mature beech trees that shade out the woodland floor, preventing many woodland plants from surviving.

Agency staff, along with Stockport’s Nature Development Officer Emma Wilson and Action Etherow and Goyt’s co-ordinator Mary Lee, worked tirelessly, (fuelled by some dinner plate sized pastries!), to remove some of the numerous beech seedlings and to do a litter pick. 

Ecological Appraisal Officer, Sharon Weaver said:

“It was good to get out as a team to do some practical conservation work and we would definitely do this kind of event again.”

Emma Wilson, Stockport MBC’s Nature Development Officer, remarked

“The Agency team worked really hard and made a great contribution to the management of the woodland.”