Our Mission:

A community group committed to returning the River Cale to a self-sustaining ecosystem that is rich in bio-diversity and to be enjoyed by all.

News

Rejuvenating the Wildflower Meadow

You may have noticed slightly less colour in the wildflower meadow over the last couple of years, as grasses and undesirable species like stinging nettles have started to establish. We have decided that the best way to deal with this will be to clear the meadow and resow it. We had hoped that this would happen this spring, however the wet weather put  a stop to that, so we are now planning on undertaking the work in September, ready for flowers to come out next year. There will still be plenty of  wildflowers and associated biodiversity this year, but you … ...read the rest

Easter Monday Litter Picking

Despite the rain there was a great turn out for our Easter Monday litter pick. Unfortunately with the high river flows, we had to give our river a wide berth. However, a great haul of discarded treasures was collected and we can all be satisfied to leave another of our green spaces spick and span! 🙂

The recovered football was donated to an excited new owner! … ...read the rest

August Kick Sample

On Sunday we undertook our regular river bug surveys. Getting this monthly snapshot of the bug diversity in the river gives us a really good insight into the health of the river each month; as well as the longer term water quality and flow trend. The scores this week were good for the time of ye.ar, possibly due to the high rainfall we’ve been experiencing.

We hope you enjoy the river now that it’s looking a bit more like summer out there! 😎

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Litter picking 17th June

Although the committee has continued to beaver away to improve our river, it had been a little while since we last organised a community activity. To get the ball rolling we held a litter pick, sweeping along the river banks, from the weir by the B3081 to Hawkers Bridge by the supermarkets. There were some great finds from our litter pick. Treasures found included, but were not limited to: beer bottles (whole), beer bottles (broken), a lovely matching shoes and cap combination, and approximately 1 million disposable vapes. However, the star find was definitely the trolley under hawkers bridge. Thank … ...read the rest

Elements

Wincanton Climate Fair 27th May 2023

From 10am – 2pm, The Balsam Centre in Wincanton is hosting a climate fair to promote wellbeing and offer practical information, advice, workshops, idea sharing and group start-ups to offer solutions to allow everyone to engage and make a difference to the environment and climate emergency. We believe through community action we can all do our bit to change our future.

There will be information and advice stands, films, art, workshops for adults and children, networking opportunities, start-up & sign up boards, toolkits and more…. WHAT’S ON | elementsclimate

Displaying ELEMENTS Instagram story.jpg

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Recognition for C.A.T.C.H at national conference

CATCH was recently recognised for our motivation and diligent monitoring of the River Cale. Our robust dataset and observations have now caught the attention of both the water company and the environmental regulator and we’re looking forward to working hard with both to keep on transforming Cale habitat for the better! Some slides and pictures from the presentation are below.

As a group, we monitor the population of ‘macroinvertebrates’ (bugs) in the River Cale in Wincanton. The variation in the types, diversity and relative abundances of these bugs gives us a very accurate picture of the health of our river … ...read the rest

CO-OP funding local groups

CATCH have been selected by the CO-OP out of tens of thousands of applicants to be supported by local funding. It’s easy to do, all you have to do is become a member of the CO-OP (like a rewards card in other supermarkets) and for every £1 spent in any store, if you have selected CATCH as your cause to support, we will receive £0.01p – NOTE: You will need to select CATCH as your chosen group, and scan your card on each visit.

This doesn’t seem like a lot of money but this runs from now until October … ...read the rest

Schools litter pick at the Recreation ground – Sunday 4th July

A local school child has borne an idea of litter picking the park adjacent to the River Cale in Wincanton. If you have children, or in fact are children from our local schools and want to take part, please follow the instructions on this particularly well drawn advert.… ...read the rest

Litter Pick

On Saturday June 12th CATCH completed another litter pick sweep of the town stretch of the River Cale. As usual, we found some items that you wouldn’t want to find in a small river.

Education is the way forward with tackling the problem.

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Donation page

Hi everyone, we now have a donation page where you can give as little or as much as you would like to see put back towards our quest of being a Community group aiming to return the Cale to a self-sustaining ecosystem that is rich in biodiversity, and to be enjoyed by all.

Any contributions are gratefully received, and we can assure you will be channelled back into projects for the town.

Please see our Just Giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/catch?utm_term=RjV7JmRNK

… ...read the rest