News
Hayley Tamaddon calls for North West residents to Plug Their Plastic Use
Before stepping onstage in the upcoming UK tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, actress and performer, Hayley Tamaddon, is putting her teaching skills to use offstage and calling for people in the North West to plug their plastic use A staggering 80% of the plastic in the ocean comes from…
Blog: Supporting Catchment Partnerships
Natural Course has been delivering a series of projects to support Catchment Partnerships in the North West. The 11 partnership hosts in the region have been coming together to learn about how to engage with businesses and develop investible projects, develop their presentation and facilitation skills, and meet as a…
Envisioning Landscape Scale Change: Cheshire Hub Host Weaver-Gowy Workshop
Climate change, poor water quality, flooding, drought, pollution and habitat loss are all environmental issues we are facing. For positive change, we need to start looking at how we can work together and go above and beyond the statutory requirements of our organisations to develop a holistic view of landscape…
Citizen Science: Results from new otter survey indicate healthier rivers
Volunteers have been trained to survey for signs of European Otter Lutra lutra Results provide new evidence of the health of six tributaries in the south of Greater Manchester During the winter of 2022 and spring of 2023, trained volunteers searched for field signs left by otters around bridges along…
Otters return to Greater Manchester
New analysis of records collated by the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit demonstrate that Otters have returned to Greater Manchester and are present across the region. Otters were nearly wiped out in the UK between the 1950s and 1970s. Changes to the law and environmental improvements led to a return to…
Ecological Network Tool expanded to cover the whole of the Northwest
New data release for the Ecological Network Tool Spatial extent expanded to cover all catchments in the North West River Basin District We’re pleased to announce that the development of Natural Course Ecological Network Tool for lowland wetlands and woodlands has been completed, and we have finally received the appropriate…
Natural Flood Management in the Wyre Catchment – new video published by Natural Course.
When Natural Course was first initiated, natural flood management (NFM) was an emerging topic. It was not well tested or implemented in the UK, and there were significant evidence gaps. Natural Course has played a critical role in developing the knowledge base, addressing evidence gaps and influencing future ways of…
Natural Course hosts international conference on trialling a Natural Capital approach to fund and deliver environmental benefits
Last week (25-26 April, 2023), Natural Course hosted a successful international engagement event that connected a wide range of over 40 key stakeholders from across Europe. Delegates from LIFE Projects in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and Wales attended to network and learn from Natural Course about…
Improving our rivers through stronger collaboration
Water governance arrangements are considered by many to be a significant barrier to implementing improvements to the water environment. Across the Northwest, the situation is complex as there are multiple political boundaries to consider, plus many stakeholders and organisations with responsibilities. Water governance is a key theme for Natural Course,…
Working together to make decisions
Natural Course hosts new training workshops for Catchment Partnerships. We’ve all been in meetings where we haven’t felt very engaged, perhaps you left without having a chance to input, or frankly, it’s just felt like a waste of your time. So how can we ensure meetings have an inclusive, participatory…