Our rivers need YOUR help!

We place many demands upon our rivers, and many of them are suffering under the load. We need your help to monitor their condition, spot problems, raise awareness, and pursue improvements. Our Catchment Catalyst project seeks to promote community action for healthy rivers. If you care about your local river, why not get involved and volunteer with us? If you are already involved in a river-focused community group, we would love to know! We want to create a network of groups across North Devon to learn from and help each other.

Tell us about your river group

What help is needed?

We understand that everyone has different skills, interests, and time availability. You can decide how much time you can spare and what you would like to be involved in. If you enjoy taking a leading role, we want to establish "River Champions" in all 92 of the river catchments in North Devon. In this role you will help coordinate action and activities on your river; these could be workdays to remove invasive weeds, or river walks, or coordinating a water testing program. If this isn't for you, then why not simply join in some of these organised activities? The more helpers we have, the more we can do to improve our rivers. To register your interest as a guardian or helper, or to find out more, please email [email protected] with your name and location and we will come back to you.

What can you do now to improve water quality?

• ​Walk your local river and report any issues. Pollution should be reported to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060
• Always bag and bin dog waste.
• Use eco cleaners around your house.
• Stop using fabric softener; generally these chemicals are not removed by treatment works.
• Create a "rain garden". By diverting downpipes onto your garden, you can slow water flow into the sewer system and reduce the risk of sewage overflows.
• Add water butts to your downpipes to reduce water usage and thereby keep more water in our rivers.
• Remove litter from rivers and beaches.
• Stop using pesticides in your garden.
• Avoid/reduce the use of flea treatments for pets.
• Support campaigns for improving water quality.

Our Catchment catalyst: Community Action for Healthy Rivers project is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and runs from July 2026 to June 2027. Thank you to all the players who made this possible.