Our Mission:

A community group committed to returning the River Cale to a self-sustaining ecosystem that is rich in bio-diversity and to be enjoyed by all.

News

Scything at the Wild Flower Meadow

Every August, the volunteers of CATCH attend to the duties of scything the Wild Flower Meadow at the Recreation Ground (next to the children’s park). The aim of scything is to clear this year’s growth, and allow seeds to drop from flowers grown this year and so to ensure the cycle for next year.

The hand scything exercise is great exercise, and the group get to use traditional methods to cut and clear the resulting hay materials.

We have posted a Facebook link to this post as the video filmed by our Chairman was too large a file to insert … ...read the rest

Balsam Bashing cont…….

Great progress this morning with Simon and Baz pulling Himalayan Balsam up to a point south of Charlton Musgrove church, although the river bed was found to have some unexpectedly deep holes. Note the essential Balsam Bashing equipment drying out after a dip!

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Beaver return for English rivers?

Interesting article and no doubt would create debate if in Wincanton…..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53658375

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New addition to the Recreation ground

A few photos from tonight’s information sign installation. The sign is at the entrance to the recreation ground and should provide some useful and interesting facts about our local river and environment surrounding it.

Also gave the chance to photograph the rock berm and planting which took place nearly three years ago, pretty amazing difference and complimented by the planting carried out on the border behind by Brue Valley Rotary Club. Then and now photos attached.

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Band Aid

This item is one of the most memorable we’ve ever found in the River Cale here in town.For those of a certain age will remember this now absolute historical event way back in 1984 ! Just goes to show how long our discarded rubbish just sits in the environment slowly polluting / rotting away. Still , some great music listed there.… ...read the rest

Himalyan Balsam bashing again

One of our annual (and usually public) events had to be carried out within just the committee this year, but because of Janice (the sensible one of the group) she corralled us into doing a huge amount of good this year in controlling this invasive non-native species of plant.

We headed upstream from the town, towards Bayford and proceeded to pull as much of the Balsam as we could before it went to seed. This means that it will be less likely to spread back down into the town in years to come and so we have only native plants … ...read the rest

Trollied!

A definite benefit of a successful river group is that  folks message us when they see issues on the Cale. 
That then coupled with a spontaneous lending of a hand in removing the dodgy item which in this case was a Morrison’s Trolly. Thanks Marie and thanks Steve for the help and the encouragement in the form of laughter at my extraction attempts from the river. 😀

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29th June – Chris Sperring MBE interviews our Chairman

Chris Sperring MBE is one of CATCH’s goto guru’s for river and nature and one of our favourite supporters. He recently interviewed Gary Hunt our Chairman via a video call and was hoping to extract the secrets of creating a community group like CATCH……If you have Facebook then you should be able to follow this link

Posted by Chris Sperring on Monday, 29 June 2020

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2020 in swing

It’s been rather a quiet time in the public eye for CATCH recently. However, with Christmas finally well and truly behind us, and Spring not far away, we are pleased to announce our first event of the year.

On Sunday morning of the 1st March we will be placing a new information board down at the recreation ground to give the less informed an opportunity to learn something about our beautiful river, The Cale, and will be in conjunction with a community litter pick.

This is the second of two boards purchased by CATCH for the community, and with … ...read the rest

Very talkative!

In order to spread the word of the Gospel of CATCH, we provide talks to a broad spectrum of organisations on a fairly regular basis. We’ve spoken to the Women’s Institute, Historical Societies, Cub scouts, Gardeners Clubs, and The Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Last week, CATCH went on tour again and travelled across to Portishead to present to the South West area of The Hawk & Owl Trust on Monday, and then Wincanton Women’s Institute on Wednesday afternoon.

The talk lasts about an hour and a half and hopefully leaves the participants with a fuller understanding of our group, the reasons … ...read the rest