Northumberland WI members are protecting the River Coquet

The Amble, Warkworth and Rothbury WI groups are involved with the Coquet River Action Group (CRAG) initiative to produce a database of information about the river's health and protect the catchment.

Also testing the river are SNAC, Felton Climate and Nature (CAN), Warkworth Green Matters and Rothbury CAN.

CRAG launched in September 2024, having generated a lot of interest in the idea of bringing together the river Coquet’s 600km² catchment area into one group to give people a say in decisions being made on the river.

In 2024, Rothbury WI and Rothbury (CAN) had citizen science groups regularly testing water quality at Rothbury and Thropton, and hope to start testing at sites on the south bank of the river in 2025 as the Rothbury Estate sale to the Wildlife Trust progresses.

This year, tests have already been carried out in Thropton at Wreigh Burn, and new volunteers are ready to begin at Hepple, Sharperton, Alwinton and upper Coquetdale to almost the source of the river.

CRAG have a busy year ahead of them, along with the supporting groups, as they look into carrying out a co-ordinated series of E-Coli tests with a view to possibly supporting bathing water applications at some sites, tackling invasive weeds on the river and it’s burns and organising riverfly invertebrate sampling.

Jane Davis, chair of CRAG, said: "People swim in the water in Rothbury in the summer and we need to know that the water is safe for people to go in. Although the Coquet is a very clean river in comparison to others around the country, there are still some issues with it. It still has sewage being released into it, the same as everybody else's.

“We've been blown away by the support and the interest. Everybody loves the river.”

The data is being recorded to accumulate a year’s worth of baseline results by April 2025, with the objective of sharing the data with the public and promote the river's health.

The group is looking to share this data and details of their activities in a user-friendly way via their website.