River Stewardship

Water is undoubtedly the most valuable commodity of them all. It is infinitely more important to us than coal, oil, gold, or diamonds because it is the very element upon which life depends, yet now more than ever we are challenged to maintain, preserve, and protect our precious rivers and waterways.

The chalkstreams are uniquely precious because they are so rare. There are a little over 200 in the world, and 85% of them are here in the United Kingdom, where they have been sculpted by man for many hundreds of years, and before us the titanic feats of nature that go back millennia. The Romans were first to utilize the rivers for irrigation and trade, and then came the Saxons who built watermills to harness the power of water and ground grains for flower and other foodstuffs, but it was the Victorians who first keepered the chalkstreams for their esteemed sporting assets. It is thanks to such perpetual stewardship that the chalkstreams are in many ways the same today as they have been for centuries.

Wilde Trout proudly carries the torch as custodian of the river, empowering riparian owners to protect their slice of chalkstream by improving habitat for wildlife and fish, and promoting fishing prospects. Our day-to-day services include weed cutting, vegetation management and tree surgery; work that is almost exclusively in-river and along the riverbanks. No two days are the same, and we are almost always soaking wet, but as any good river keeper will tell you, it is a tremendously rewarding way of life. Nothing beats the sense of accomplishment when you find a wild brown trout happily rising in his newly found lay.