Re: MRA Online Auction V 2011
Well ladies and gentlemen, what can I say but thanks very, very much for all of your generously donated lots - a fantastic array; something to suit everybody! I am sure that the bidding will match the generosity of the donors and make this year's auction the best yet.
This auction is being conducted soley on line so when the hammer falls, so to speak, the lot is yours so don't miss out.
The annual auction is by far our biggest fund raiser.
Last year's wonderful total enabled us to carry out unique and nationally recognised projects: including the continuation of the mink monitoring and trapping programme initiated by the GWCT, which finished last June, leaving us with; a mink free catchment, a thriving popoulation of water voles on the Dore and many birds such as the dabchick (little grebe), moorhen and sand piper recolonising the river. Not to mention one less predator nobbling our fish population! To continue the important work we have set up a wonderful team of volunteers to monitor the GWCT mink rafts and report any signs of mink, which are dealt with by a Ben and Owain Rodgers. The continuing success of this work has meant the Monnow remains a mink free catchment and, with the aid of some additional strategic habitat work on the Dore that water voles have established themselves on the main river and are spreading accross the catchment. We believe that we are the first catchment to have done this using a volunteer network.
Another first is our unique project to eradicate Himalayan Balsam from the catchment and we are over 2/3rds of the way to achieving our target of effective eradication of this invasive weed from the 75kms of infected river by 2014. When we succeed we believe that we will be first significant catchment to have rid ourselves of the dreaded HB and be an example to all other catchments that think that it can't be done.
If anybody wants further details of these two projects, feel free to get in contact with me.
Another vital thread that we are now working on is reconnecting school children to the need to have clean healthy rivers that are vital to so many creatures. We are doing this by running the WTT inspired Mayfly in the Classroom course and "Casting in Schools", lead by Frank Williams and we hope to roll these programmes out to as many of the primary schools in the catchment as possible. The interest they generate amongst the children and their parents is phenomenal and the knock on effects are just as great.
We are continuing with our targetted habitat improvement programme and recently completed 1.5kms of coppicing and fencing on the Dore and the Escley, both of which may well be available shortly to the visiting angler as part of the WUF Passport scheme as new beats or an addition to an existing beat. This year we are targetting an important length on the upper Honddu, which will have a great benefit to the whole of that wonderful trout stream.
Those are the highlights of some of the work that your generosity has enabled us to do (more details are available on our website), the fruits of which you can enjoy by: bidding frenetically and winning one of the many fishing lots available on the Monnow; coming to Monnow Social, to be held once again in early May (more details to be announced), next year and via one of the 20 or so Monnow beats available through the Wye and Usk Foundation Passport Scheme.
Thanks again,
Rob Denny
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"The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning."
www.monnow.org
Last edited by Cranefly; 14-11-2011 at 09:40 AM.
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