STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME

STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME

Streamkeepers is Loughs Agency’s new and exciting community outreach programme which has been set up to promote the importance of protecting natural resources by encouraging people to get involved with their local waterways.

It provides an opportunity for groups of all ages to get together, tidy up and look after a local stream, river or lake.

Maintaining clean waterways for our native fish is no easy task. Loughs Agency prides itself on managing one of the most successful salmon fisheries in Western Europe.

Waterway action plans and clean-up projects create valuable positive learning experiences while improving the welfare of the environment and local community.

Loughs Agency provides Streamkeepers groups with a toolkit containing useful information, contacts and checklists to help organise an environmental action event from beginning to end. This is called a River Action Plan. Loughs Agency will also be providing groups with helpful advice, guidance, and necessary equipment such as litter picks, gloves, high visibility vests and rubbish bags.

moreinformation information about thethe Streamkeepers programme or how to get ForFor more about Streamkeepers programme involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org please email: aoibheann.gm@loughs-agency.org

DELIVERY STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME WHAT'S INVOLVED? 1 Day River Workshop River Anatomy Training Habitat Survey identifying local issues River Action Event Training 1 Heritage/River Story Workshop Collate local river stories Historic River Data - Facilitated by local historian

Half Day/Full Day River Action Event Depending on local issues (i.e, litter pick, habitat monitoring, tree planting) River Network & Resources Network of Streamkeepers from SOURCE TO SEA Collection & creation of local heritage & river stories WHO'S INVOLVED? 10 Groups (2 Groups per Stream/River) Loughs Agency Local Historian

WHERE? 5 Locations within Foyle Catchment - Source to Sea Our Commitment: • To provide a resourced programme that will help community groups develop an increased understanding of the importance of our waterways, partake in new experiences, meet new people and become more equipped to make decisions that may affect their future and protect their rivers/streams.

Groups' Commitment: To select min 10 group members to take part in programme.

To work jointly with your catchment partner group.

River Action Event.

• To provide all equipment.

For more information about the Streamkeepers programme or how to get involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org

PROJECT AIMS STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME PROJECT AIMS: The Streamkeepers project aims to rebuild the relationships people have with their rivers and each other, boosting wellbeing and community cohesion in the process. On a cross-border basis across the Foyle area, inter-generational groups will have the opportunity to discover, explore and learn about their local watercourse. Individuals will meet in the vicinity of this shared natural resource and organically build sustainable relationships and connections with each other and other communities throughout the catchments.

The project is geographically spread across two cross-border catchments and uses the river system as the metaphor and mechanism through which we can demonstrate how we are all connected and interdependent.

The programme will have four distinct elements involving the exploration of rivers, discovering their journey through time while exploring positive connections. It will be facilitated by Agency staff and relevant experts.

For more information about the Streamkeepers programme or how to get involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org

PROJECT ELEMENTS STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME My Local River This element aims to identify environmental issues affecting local rivers along the border where mixed communities reside. Environmental issues ignore human boundaries. They demand cooperation across those boundaries, whether they are between nations, identity groups, neighbourhoods, or the people who live upstream and those who live downstream.

That interdependence will be used to create cooperative opportunities among individuals who are not naturally inclined to cooperate with each other.

In groups of at least ten individuals, Streamkeepers will explore their local river system.

Through this experience, issues will be identified and addressed so that a river group can be formed. group. It will be the role of the group to work together, facilitated by Loughs Agency staff, to document their findings in a River Action Plan and plan a series of workshops and activities, the majority of which will take place outdoors.

Reflections Groups will explore their river, its source and confluences as well as the wider catchment using digital maps and historical data from the area and the local communities therein.

Through research and discovery, the story of their river will be revealed, to explore how the river has changed over time and the effect this has had on generations of local people. The project will engage local historians to help articulate the story of the river and collate this research with contemporary materials (through local stories and folklore) to create a resource encapsulating what the river means to the people within the community. The project will provide opportunities for groups to share their river story and create connection commonalities across generations, Streamkeepers groups, communities and cross-border catchments. This in turn will support sustainable relationships and build relations at grassroots levels.

Local rivers, often the lifeblood of the community, can create in people a deeply rooted sense of place that can be used to strengthen people’s shared identities, or soften some of the more divisive and conflict-oriented identities that can also take root. This cross-community and cross-border project will explore that sense of place for Streamkeepers and begin forming a shared identity across communities and catchments.

For more information about the Streamkeepers programme or how to get involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org

PROJECT ELEMENTS STREAMKEEPER PROGRAMME Community Capacity Training will be delivered to build capacity and empower individuals to become confident Streamkeepers. Training will be held centrally and this is another opportunity for groups from various locations to come together to exchange their learning, progress and resources.

Environmental problems can be technically complex, and they challenge us to think forward into an uncertain world - the greatest example of this is, of course, climate change. That uncertainty creates opportunities for learning together and that learning can be used as a tool to build trust and respect among parties who might not be inclined to trust or respect each other.

River Network A network of Streamkeepers will develop throughout the catchments. Ultimately Streamkeepers will become self-sufficient following the completion of this project, undertaking ongoing monitoring and clean-up activities and working with Loughs Agency when they have concerns or require support.

For more information about the Streamkeepers programme or how to get involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org

CATCHMENT MAP STREAMKEEPER LOCATIONS: FOYLE CATCHMENT

For more information about the Streamkeepers programme or how to get involved please email: education@loughs-agency.org