Biologist, naturalist, writer, campaigner at Right to Roam; Country Diarist at The Guardian; Wainwright Prize winning author of The Flow
WIP: Old Nows
Agent: Jane Turnbull [email protected]
Dr Amy-Jane Beer
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Great to also see @rachaelbice.bsky.social and huge thanks to the brilliant Helen and Em from York’s burgeoning river campaign Ouse It Or Lose It for their E-coliaboration and bonkers bacterial backup!
The panel was preceded by a provocation from chemical pollution researcher @alistairboxall.bsky.social and artist Will Templeton. Do check out their collaboration #ConfluenceForChange at Sliding Water gallery in York this week.
So much of the dial-shifting river activism and wild service requires trespass. @yorkshirewater.bsky.social refuse to countenance swimming. But a swimmable river is a healthy one. So to water industry and government, my message is simple: Let. Us. In.
The session was called ‘The future’s in our hands: reclaiming our rivers’ To which I say, not yet it isn’t. Not until the water industry is wrested back from private profiteering and we have uncontested right of access to less than 4% of English rivers.
Yesterday I/Jenny Greenteeth joined a panel at @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social with Prof John Lawton, @rachaelmaskell.bsky.social, Dr Marie Taylor of @yorkdalesrt.bsky.social and Adam Ashman of @yorkshirewater.bsky.social Spooked a few children on the way in, oops. 🧙🐸🦠🧌
For more on Reclaiming Our Rivers join me, @alistairboxall.bsky.social, Prof Sir John Lawton, @rachaelmaskell.bsky.social Marie Taylor of @yorkdalesrt.bsky.social
& Adam Ashman of #yorkshirewater for a panel discussion on water quality tomorrow.
yorkfestivalofideas.com/2026/calenda...
Yes.
Responsible access to clean cool water is a matter of public health, social justice and climate resilience and a swimmable river is a healthy one for all the other lives that call it home.
@feargalsharkey.bsky.social in typically barnstorming form yesterday at @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social
In response to an audience question about what success looks like for water quality improvement he said 'it looks like when anyone can go and swim in their nearest bit of river'… 1/3
