River Buddies: Volunteers clean up Isle of Man's rivers

Bill Dale also founded Beach Buddies 16 years ago to tackle litter on Manx beaches

Volunteers have joined a litter picking project to remove rubbish from rivers on the Isle of Man.

The founder of River Buddies said the group would tackle a problem that has "been around for a long time".

Bill Dale said they would try to tidy up Manx rivers "as much as we can".

River Buddies is a collaboration between Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT), the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) and charity Beach Buddies.

Due to salmon and trout spawning, entering flowing water to remove items is only permitted between July and September, so the volunteer work parties will concentrate on picking up litter along riverbanks and nearby footpaths in glens and the Manx countryside outside of that period.

Volunteers gathered in Laxey on Saturday

Lara Howe says the initiative will help the natural environment

In some cases organised litter picking sessions also require the consent of landowners whose fields the rivers run alongside or through.

Mr Dale said River Buddies, which was launched in Laxey, wanted to "keep it simple and tackle a problem that's been around for a long time".

"What we're doing is transferring what we've done with the beaches to clean up the rivers."

John Ward says DEFA will help with advice, guidance and risk assessments

MWT marine officer Lara Howe said work by volunteers to clean up beaches over the last 16 years had been important for helping support wildlife.

"Removing litter, whether it's in our rivers or our beaches, makes a huge difference to there being less in our marine environment, reducing microplastics and entanglement issues," she said.

Inland fisheries policy manager for DEFA, John Ward, said it was "a necessity for us to look at caring for our rivers" together.

"It's more getting the community to understand that they need to be very much looking after the environment, and it gets people out enjoying the environment whilst they're healing it," he said.