River Keekle Restoration

Woodlands have been working with the West Cumbria Rivers Trust to restore the River Keekle near Whitehaven in Cumbria. It was an open cast coal mine until the early nineties, when the riverbed was lined with plastic in an attempt to keep buried toxic waste out of the river. The river restoration project is now removing this horrible plastic and repairing the river to a more natural state, to prevent flooding and restore the health and biodiversity of the surrounding area. #River # Restoration #Cumbria
A film for woodlands.co.uk by Jemma Cholawo. www.jemmacholawo.com

[@Neilhuny]

Give that man a medal! Talking to camera in such heavy rain but still looking comfortable is very impressive

[@jemmacholawo2052]

And one for the camerawoman, too, please. :)

[@Neilhuny]

@@jemmacholawo2052 Well done, Jemma! You deserve a medal, too. I hope you got a hot bath, lots of warm, fluffy towels and a hot chocolate after that

[@jemmacholawo2052]

@@Neilhuny Thank you, kind stranger!

[@craig666dawson]

Superb restoration job by West Cumbria Rivers trust. This valley is now a real beauty spot with fanatic wildlife.
It’s a shame that Woodlands UK, as land owner and benefactor of this charitable and publically funded work, did not live up to their obligations.
Under planning laws section 106 they should have provided public access and footpaths, neither of which have been delivered.
Worse, when I was there last week, for the pre-existing public footpath that was already there they have erected boulders and signs to block public access.
Publicly funded boulders used to block lawful public access.
The Woodlands UK motto should be “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is up for grabs”

[@nigelwylie01]

Who on earth signed off that plan to allow the miners to leave the site with such a short-term solution for the river? I hope the mining company has a sustainability department these days and is willing to redress historical failures like this; helping to pay part of the cost of the restoration project?

[@aenorist2431]

You had me rolling and laughing at a mining company redressing failures.
They don't do that under legal threat, let alone freely.
Do not humanize companies, they are by design soulless profit-extraction-machines, and that kind of environmentalism is deeply unprofitable.

[@nigelwylie01]

@@aenorist2431 You are, of course right about the profit motive, but 'Green-washing' is a powerful profit motive too. Most larger corporations are desperate to gain environmental cudos these days, and are investing multiple millions to do so.

[@tinabaker4662]

@@nigelwylie01 nonsense! Learn about what Southern Water have done to the environment.

[@kevdimo6459]

What a great thing you’re doing! I wish you all the best in your efforts to restore this river. Congratulations from Australia 🇦🇺.

[@bosse641]

Humanity is not very smart. So destructive. Short-sighted and greedy. And never learning it seems.

[@treesagreen4191]

What a big project! Good luck- it will be amazing

[@kenleach2516]

Great project, improving nature and Man kind x

[@FindInNature]

I can't believe how they put plastic in the river. It's nonsense.
It was easy to see that soon or later the water would go below the plastic and make a mess.

[@aenorist2431]

It was the era where plastic solved everything with no repercussion.
Just like that time when everything should be radioactive, cause thats not gonna be a problem.
Society always does stuff thats completely retarded in hindsight, its groupthink a la "the fancy new thing".

[@darklingeraeld-ridge7946]

Admirable.

[@Tracks777]

amazing stuff

[@undermoss6394]

2:24 what a dedication

[@phil2186]

Yes this is a superb restoration job done by West Cumbria Rivers but highly ironic that Woodlands UK, as benefactor and owner of the site, should be the one highlighting it on their TH-cam channel.
Woodlands UK has a contractual obligation under UK planning law section 106 to allow public access and provide footpaths in these woodlands. They have had £1.3 million of public funding invested in their land and have now blocked an existing public footpath. Signage has been installed indicating the woodland is private and there is no intention to dedicate any part of it as a public right of way, clearly at odds with the section 106 and public footpath arrangements, let alone the ethos of statements made on their website.

[@martin7955]

My god how did they get away with that

[@speedtimothy]

introduce some 'beavers' those bad-boys will sort the ecosystem out. (nature knows best)

[@jonworrall1153]

@@JH-gm1ph i think there was

[@jonworrall1153]

@@JH-gm1ph Beavers are native to the UK and used to be widespread in England, Wales and Scotland. They became extinct in the 16th century, mainly because of hunting for their fur, meat and 'castoreum', a secretion used in perfumes, food and medicine. We support the re-establishment of beavers where they used to occur in the UK.

[@kenleach2516]

Beavers are in Scotland since 2000, in an earlier article.

[@tinabaker4662]

@@jonworrall1153 the brown bear and wolf were also native, would you illegally introduce them as well? Beavers might be beneficial in spate rivers for instance, but if introduced to a Chalk Stream for instance would cause irreparable ecological damage.
Before you encourage more illegal introductions of beavers, please look a little more deeply into their possible environmental effects.

[@tinabaker4662]

@@kenleach2516 illegally introduced.

[@dodadodo25]

Yh lets put loads of plastic on a river bed, that'll work......ffs

[@kenleach2516]

Beavers, plant more

[@Mumbles274]

you need beavers, or at least use BDAs to slow the river down

[@229andymon]

We did that up here in Argyll a few years ago now, all going very well I believe. In fact it's a tourist attraction now. But I remember at the time there were farmers and others against the project to the point you'd think they were introducing crocodiles! There are still people objecting.
Incidentally, while they were considering the re-introduction, there had been a previous, unofficial introduction of beavers into the river Tay where, in spite of persecution, the beavers were/are still surviving.

[@tammcd]

Cheap, nasty "solutions" shift costs to others.

[@dac545j]

Jeez. Put your hood up, mate.

[@rogerscottcathey]

Evidently reply to comments is capable of being turned off. What's the purpose of that? Subthread chatter clog the system or something?

[@treesagreen4191]

Pockets MacCartney the comments option is still working. However, I subscribe to a channel where they've turned off the comments because of aggressive trolling.

[@rogerscottcathey]

@@treesagreen4191 !; Yeah I see that others can, but several comments I've written under an op have failed to appear.

[@michaelairley2015]

Money from the EU!!! haha. What that means is 25% less money we could have invested before they take their cut.

[@ligurian728]

Stone and cobbles is not the natural material. Wood. Beavers.

[@liam314]

Now if we could only rid the world of capitalism we might just have a chance

[@andysing72]

EU funding you say?

[@Tracks777]

amazing stuff