The Wear Rivers Trust is an environmental charity operating across the whole of the Wear Catchment from the source in the peatland uplands of Weardale in the North Pennines to the sea at Sunderland, including all of the tributary river systems, an area totalling 420 square miles.

WRT works to address the global challenges of carbon capture and storage, biodiversity loss, water quality, flood risk management, drought resilience and access to Nature at the local and catchment scale.

The Wear catchment has multiple legacy and modern day challenges.

Legacy: There are large scale and widespread issues with contaminated land and water arising from our industrial and mining history. The whole of the River Wear was industrialised from source to sea.

Modern day: run-off from roads, urban areas and farms gets into drains ditches and streams, which in turn flow into larger streams, rivers and ultimately into the sea. Nature on land and water is completely interconnected and needs to be managed in a joined up way. WRT delivers, at times, complex river engineering, for example to  remove or adapt man-made barriers to fish migration. 

We work with farmers to identify and resolve pollution sources and pathways and to improve soil management. The management of agricultural soils, comprising over 70% of the land in England is the single biggest factor affecting those global environmental challenges. Peatland soils for example store more carbon than in an equivalent area of rainforest.

We provide volunteering opportunities providing the means for people to make a contribution to habitat creation, restoring biodiversity and protecting Nature, providing individual and community physical and mental health benefits.

Perhaps our most important work is with schools, helping the next generation understand those global environmental challenges, and as importantly what they, their families and friends can do to make a difference.

If you wish to learn more about our work please visit wear-rivers-trust.org.uk

It takes funding to put boots on the ground. If you are able to support our work financially please go to the DONATE button on our home page.