Bollin Environmental Action and Conservation, known as BEACON, is celebrating its 10th birthday in December this year! BEACON is a local action group, coordinated by Mersey Rivers Trust, and made up of key organisations and stakeholders who work across the river Bollin catchment on environmental and conservation projects.

Project highlights delivered by BEACON over the past 10 years include:

• Spring cleaning events held in the Carrs Park in Wilmslow, where large numbers of the community turned up to litter pick a much-loved green space and small businesses supported through in-kind contributions of equipment and refreshments.
• Invasive species control sessions to manage the swathes of invasive giant hogweed along the banks of the Bollin in Bowdon. This was championed by the Friends of Bowdon Bollin volunteer group who received training through the project in manual and chemical control methods. A single giant hogweed plant will produce around 20,000 seeds; we estimate that the ongoing control programme has prevented millions of seeds from entering the soil and spreading further!
• Education workshops with young people on our rivers and how to protect them; these covered subjects such as biodiversity, water quality, what not to flush and invasive species. This year alone the classroom-based workshops engaged over 350 local children in protecting our waterways.

Looking to the future BEACON will continue to build on its legacy of successful work through evidence-led local action, monitoring, education and awareness raising.

Future projects based in the Bollin catchment include:

• The restoration and enhancement of the existing wetland areas in the Carrs Park, Wilmslow.
• The creation of free water management plans for farms in the Bollin Catchment.
• The continuation of the Bollin invasive species control programme which manages non-native invasive species along almost 40 km of river bank.

BEACON was founded on a core vision “To have a healthy land and river catchment where people and our natural wildlife thrive.”. The members of BEACON work together to co-design and co-deliver an action plan for the Bollin catchment based around BEACON's five priorities: The quality of our rivers, brooks and meres; flood risk; biodiversity and ecology; recreation, leisure and landscape; community engagement.