Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

LAST week I described the work of English Nature and this week it is the turn of the Environment Agency.

This is another government-funded body which does not get the credit it deserves.

It was formed almost four years ago from what was then the National Rivers Authority.

It has two important functions these days.

The first is to investigate those who pollute our countryside and to prosecute the offenders.

The agency thus has teeth to deal with problems but it prefers to work in a more friendly and advisory capacity.

Far too few people realise that they can obtain advice from the scientists employed by the Environment Agency and that this advice is free.

Two addresses are important for those living in the North West of England:

Regional Headquarters, The Environment Agency, PO Box 12, Richard Fairclough House, Knutsford Road, Warrington, WA4 1HG. Telephone: 01925 653999.

Central Area (which includes our area), Lutra House, Dodd Way, Walton, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 8BX. Telephone: 01772 339882. If you know of a pollution problem or you have a business which needs free advice on current regulations, then all you have to do is to pick up a phone. The Environment Agency publishes its own magazine called Catch and from this title it is easy to see how the agency is using fish as an indicator to the improvement in the quality of the water.

Dead fish in a watercourse are also an obvious indicator of a problem.

The Environment Agency is, in my opinion, doing a remarkable job in balancing friendly help for those who need it and also running down those persisting polluters who ignore advice. With bodies such as English Nature and the Environment Agency to help us our local countryside is bound to benefit. There is, however, always room for the work of so-called amateurs.

There are far too few full-time biologists and chemists working.

They all welcome the contributions of "nature spies" to keep a wary eye open for the bad as well as the good aspects of our countryside.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.