Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The River Hull Living Landscape

by Jon Traill, Living Landscapes Manager, Wolds & Holderness

A joint lecture with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

The River Hull catchment is nestled away in the eastern edge of Yorkshire.  Often overlooked and sometimes forgotten, this watercourse has a multitude of hidden wildlife gems, along with a long history of man’s interaction and involvement.  This talk will uncover some of that past history, with a journey showing how the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is working towards a healthy thriving ecosystem, embedded alongside the other uses and pressures in today’s world.  A Living Landscape for now and tomorrow.

Member’s report

For the past ten years our speaker had led YWT efforts to create a ‘living landscape’ beside the River Hull from its water courses around Driffield southwards, halting the decline in wildlife by initiating projects that addressed not just environmental issues but also social and economic  ones. The key to this triple approach was to engage the local East Yorkshire farmers, often cautious if not suspicious to begin with, but without whose support little could be achieved, for the area contains only three very tiny SSSIs.  Landowners have responded keenly, for example, to the idea of recreating ponds and the Crystal Clear project to restore chalk streams. The fact that the Trust itself runs two farms and has recently purchased a former fish farm at Skerne to turn into a wet woodland with a huge reed bed boosts local farmers’ confidence in it. Regular sightings of kingfishers, water voles, brown trout and lampreys are now the result.

Bob Hale