When we think about water in Silsden the beck immediately comes to mind. The area around the duck pond is a focal point of the community so it is especially important that we look after it. There are a number of initiatives which Climate Action Silsden supports to work for our rivers:
In late June/ July they can be seen Balsam bashing all along the beck. Himalayan Balsam is an invasive non-native species which has colonised most of the river banks in the UK. It crowds out the native plants and, being shallow rooted, leaves the banks prone to erosion in the winter months. Riverfly monitoring. This is a citizen science project supervised by the Aire Rivers Trust. There are five locations in Silsden where monthly riverfly samples are taken, some by CAS members. A sample involves kicking the riverbed to dislodge any bugs living under the stones. Many of these bugs are pollution sensitive, so a change in population may indicate pollution, any significant change in numbers is notified to the Environment Agency for investigation. Riverfly data helped with investigating fish kills in the beck in 2022.
