It's been a quiet week here in the valley.  Much less rain than of late up to today and the ground was starting to dry nicely.  That's all changed with a pretty fierce storm ripping through Horton as I write this and the hills are once again waterlogged.

I did the monthly check on water quality during the week and it's nice to report that both the Tarn and river are showing the sort of conditions that one would expect at this late season.  All, that is, except the oxygen readings which still give a negative reading all the way up the river and in the Tarn.  Odd.

It's not often that you get someone offering to give you money but that's pretty much what happened this week when i got an email from the Wild Trout Trust asking if we had any conservation projects underway that would benefit from their assistance.  They can offer both practical help and financial support and  I have replied setting out our plans for taking forward the actions that the WTT recommended in the report that they prepared for us last year and have just heard that they are keen to learn more.  I'll keep you posted on this.

Our native brown trout should be spawning very soon if it's not too warm so I plan to walk the becks this week to monitor activity on the breeding front.  In the past the key spawning date on the upper Ribble was 12 December so it will interesting to see if the rise in global temperature and this mild autumn has had any impact.

I wrote to thank the team at Sparsholt College for providing such a worthwhile course on Fisheries management that I attended last month.  I had a very nice reply from the unit leader who will be in York over the new year.  If our free time coincides we plan to meet here so that I can show him round the fishery.  Yet another source of really useful advice.

Time to brave the elements and check on livestock so more next week.

Ian