Thirteen Carmarthenshire Rivers Trust volunteers attended a successful river habitat training course at Brechfa in January this year. The aim of the day was to familiarise volunteers with the techniques of assessing the health of river and bankside (riparian) habitat, which will enable them to complete walkover surveys of six major tributaries of the River Cothi draining the Brechfa Forest area of Carmarthenshire.

Volunteers were shown examples of issues that can have a negative effect on the survival of salmon, sea trout and brown trout and on the river invertebrates on which they and river birds such as dippers and grey wagtails feed. The volunteers were also shown how to record the location and extent of these habitat features.

With access permission granted by the Forestry Commission, the volunteers then walked a length of the river Marlais at Brechfa looking at river features in situ.

This Brechfa river habitat survey organised by the Carmarthenshire Rivers Trust with the support of the Countryside Council for Wales who provided the funds to purchase much of the equipment required to complete this and future surveys. Over 20 volunteers will be involved in the project, which in addition to habitat features, will record data on invertebrate numbers and water quality to assess the health of the river environment.

Overall the project hopes to:

• Identify the nature, location and extent of habitat/biodiversity issues on Brechfa Forest tributaries.
• Enable the Trust to gain information allowing it to prioritise issues.
• Involving members of the local and wider community as volunteers learning about protecting and enhancing their environment and developing a sense of engagement with it.
• Developing volunteer expertise and knowledge that can also be used in subsequent phases of this and other environmental projects.
• Helping to promote a partnership approach, between the Carmarthenshire Rivers Trust, Afonydd Cymru, the Environment Agency Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Forestry Commission Wales and other organizations, towards protecting and restoring the river environments and biodiversity of Carmarthenshire.