It's a grey and blustery start to the new week here in the valley with the threat of rain.  The forecast is for better conditions this afternoon and a little rain over night has kept the river at a reasonable flow. 

I'm hopeful that we will hear this week whether the application for grant funds to do the habitat work at Nanny Carr's has been successful.  I have spent a few hours playing with prices for materials and equipment and have managed to pull together a budget that will allow us to do all the work we wanted as well as some judicious tree planting and bank protection within the sum bid for. 

On Saturday I was looking at the revetment work that the YDNPA have done along side their footpath above Cragg Hill and this looks like a useful form to follow at Cam Beck.  It consists of a number of wooden stakes driven into the river bed and interlaced with stout branches.  This natural looking barrier is then back filled with material to create a firm but flexible buffer against erosion that will naturalise still further over time.  It's more gentle on the eye than traditional boulder rip rap and will enable bank-side vegetation to grow right up to the water's edge.  There is also the added advantage that the materials needed can be got from trees around the area and there is no need for heavy equipment on site so it's wholly within the scope of our volunteer workforce.

Fingers crossed for a successful outcome to the bid.  Otherwise we will have to look for other funding sources and these are becoming scarce thanks to the massive budget cut imposed on DEFRA.  Ministers bang on about "joined up government" but most of them struggle with joined up writing.  It's the politics of the mad house to reduce funding for environmental projects at the same time as you bring about the biggest shake up in environmental management in decades.  Natural England, the new body that came into being on 1 October has a massive job to do to convince us that it's not a back door way of emasculating the rather effective former English Nature who, to their credit, were often a thorn in the side of government planners.

Time will tell and whilst the names and structures may have changed, by and large the people have not.  They will need our support and encouragement.

Ian