The Great Nature Watch

Communications Update 27th May 2016

News Round up · The Times and Metro (23/5/16) as well as regional BBC website, radio and TV (20/5/16) report the Trust’s trial of a remotely operated bridge on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

· BBC Radio Tees (20/05/16) spent the morning at the Tees Barrage, speaking to Lee Butler, Jack Harrison and Reece Hugill about their work, finding out how volunteers are getting involved and enjoying ‘the best office view in Teesside’

· The Sunday Express (22/5/16) takes a relaxing trip along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to mark its bicentenary

· There was further broadcast coverage for the Trust’s Great Nature Watch story including an interview with national ecologist Mark Robinson on BBC Radio Lincolnshire (22/5/16)

· Barging Round Britain with John Sergeant on ITV (20/5/16) was a great advert for the Oxford Canal

· The Mirror (24/5/16) reports (and tweeted the story to their 735k followers) an unusual find on the Regent’s Canal which may have left someone ‘red cheeked’

· BBC Radio Lancashire (25/5/16) spoke to volunteer development coordinator Matt Taylor about the recruitment of volunteers to a new welcome station in Burnley

· Metro has today (26/5/16) run a feature on kayaking to work. It recommends a number of our waterways, including the planned Coast to Coast canoe trail on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

· And finally, the Trust’s ‘don’t feed the ducks bread’ story has gone mainstream featuring in the reality television series Made in Chelsea broadcast by E4

In social media: · We shared the Facebook Live video made by BBC Tees with our audience on Facebook. The post reached 4,880 people and had 1,569 views. The original video/live stream posted by BBC Tees received 4,924 views.

· The #GreatNatureWatch Thunderclap is doing well, 57 out of 100 supporters and a current reach of over 700,000. Hopefully we will reach 1 million people, as long as we hit our target of 100 sign ups. Please sign up here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/42014-great-nature-watch?locale=en

And coming up next week:

· An announcement will be made about the appointment of new Trustees

· It’s the Crick Boat Show this weekend

· We’ll be promoting a revamped stretch of towpath on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Devizes

· We’ll be celebrating the starring role of Gloucester Docks in Disney’s blockbuster ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ which is in cinemas from tomorrow

· After repeated instances of vandalism, we’ll be appealing to Worcester residents to help support their local waterway

· We’re looking for volunteers to help out at a welcome station at historic Naburn workshops on the River Ouse

· We’ll be inviting media along to see volunteers pouring hundreds of tonnes of concrete to create new foundations as part of efforts to restore lock 15 on the Grantham Canal

The Great Nature Watch

Take a trip to your local canal, river, reservoir or lake and record what you see there. It’s a fun activity to do with the family and will help us to monitor and protect the wide variety of precious wildlife that the waterways are home to. This year we're calling on everyone to ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ to what’s happening around them following our own survey results, which show surprising gaps in people’s nature knowledge.

We've been working with the renowned Wildlife Sound Recording Society to create a series of nature noises and challenge people to identify them as part of our Wildlife Ear and Eye Q test. Surveying toddlers to OAPs, the results showed that 25% of parents and 30% of children could not identify the sound a duck makes.

We also found that 23% of parents and nearly a third of children thought that ducks have yellow feathers, perhaps the result of children’s TV programmes such as Peppa Pig.

Findings also show that 76% of parents believe that they are less knowledgeable about nature than the previous generation with 68% of parents also believing that their children are less knowledgeable about nature than they were at their age.

When put to the test the gap in wildlife knowledge between parents and their children is actually surprisingly close, however the gap between grandparents and their adult children and grandchildren is much bigger.

Dr Mark Robinson, national ecologist for the Canal & River Trust, says: “It’s a shame to see that people’s knowledge of nature is declining, but this can easily be reversed.

For more information, take part in a wildlife quiz and to download the Great Nature Watch app click here

Do you want to know which is the longest tunnel or the shortest lock on our canal & river network?

We have a dedicated page on our website just for fascinating facts about canal & rivers. Why not swot up and impress or bore your friends or be that person with the obscure answer at the local pub quiz! Click here to start. Selima ‘Champions’

Selima ‘Champions’ are now in place to support the roll out of our Selima online volunteer expenses system. The team has been set up to provide help to both task managers and volunteers to use the new expenses payment process, from setting up profiles to submitting and approving expense claims and/or troubleshoot any problems.

To find out more and to contact your local Selima Champion please email [email protected]