MORE than 100 people attended Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s Annual Barnes Memorial Lecture held at the Hotel Metropole on Thursday, October 26.

Professor Steve Ormerod of Cardiff University gave this year’s talk called “Alive in the river of light: a freshwater ecologist’s journey.”

These inspirational evenings are held every year in memory of Doug Barnes and Maisey Bennett who were best known for starting up the Toad Patrol around Llandrindod Lake back in the late seventies.

Steve spoke of how he was just beginning his ecological career at that time and was working at the Llysdinam Field Centre in Newbridge-on-Wye, under the direction of Dr. Fred Slater and sharing an office with Ray Woods.

Steve went on to talk of how his passion for freshwater organisms and ecosystems grew into a career and explained some of the research he’s been carrying out on river biodiversity.

Steve is one of Europe’s leading freshwater ecologists whose work focuses on large-scale problems affecting streams, lakes and rivers including climate change.

Steve was only too pleased to launch a new report written by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust called ‘Wildlife in Radnorshire 2017’ which outlines the current state of nature in Radnorshire.

It discusses how wildlife losses can be tackled, describing five recent examples of biodiversity recovery projects in Radnorshire and proposing priorities for Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s work over the next five years.

Julian Jones, trust director, said: “We are hugely grateful to Llysdinam Trust for generously funding all the printing costs of this report and to everyone who donated their expertise, time and photographs, and particular thanks go to the editor, RWT Trustee Pam Knight, who worked hard to pull everything together.”