At Orvis UK, we believe great days on the water rely on healthy, wild rivers and the organisations working tirelessly to protect them. That’s why we’re proud to support our friends at the Wild Trout Trust, a charity whose impact reaches far beyond the banks we fish. As 2025 comes to a close, Shaun Leonard, Director of the Wild Trout Trust, shares his standout moments from the year, the pressures our rivers are facing, and how each of us can play a part in protecting the waters we love.
Looking back on 2025, what standout moments or achievements from the Wild Trout Trust are you most proud of?
We added two new Conservation Officers to our team (David Oakley covering the south and Ed Noyes in western England) and Sophie Evingar as our Marketing and Fundraising Manager. I’m very proud of the impact our staff team has had through 2025; notably, we upped the number of Advisory Visits and practical projects we delivered, which together spanned 400km of river from Norfolk to Galway and Cornwall to Inverness. The ongoing and hugely productive partnership we have with the fisheries teams of the Environment Agency in England is vital to much of this work, putting anglers’ rod licence money to great use.
We got together with our members, holding this year’s national shindig on the Kennet in July and treating them to various local guided walks. We also gathered our Trout in the Town groups for our annual Conclave in Keighley (kindly hosted by the River Worth Friends). Our membership grew in 2025 – just a little, but not bad considering all that’s going on. Those wonderful members supported us extraordinarily with our fundraisers, like our annual spring auction; a record breaker in 2025! Overall, we set out to make more noise about wild trout conservation, our work, and why all that matters. Hopefully that’s been apparent through the stories we’ve shared this year.
What were the biggest challenges wild trout and their habitats faced this year?
Undoubtedly, the weather. Trout are cold water lovers, so high temperatures and low river levels are a bad combination. We saw both in profusion in 2025. In January, the Environment Agency published a report foretelling bleak times ahead for trout, with 70% of rivers becoming too warm for them by 2080. So it’s ever more important that we restore natural function to our beleaguered rivers – in our case, through things like tree planting, removing weirs, or adding fencing to exclude livestock from the riverbank.
As you look ahead to 2026, what key projects or priorities will shape your work?
We’ve got some really big river improvement jobs to do, including one in Lincolnshire (funded by fines imposed on polluting water companies) and another on a chalk stream in Hertfordshire. We’ll be looking to highlight how physical damage impacts our rivers and their wildlife; both historic and modern-day efforts to move, straighten, dam and dredge them. The current media storm is all about sewage pollution – which is without doubt hugely damaging and disgraceful – but most of our rivers bear scars from countless years of physical abuse. We’ll also continue to highlight the work of other NGOs that focus on trying to combat pollution and abstraction.
How can anglers and Orvis customers meaningfully support the Wild Trout Trust’s mission in the coming year?
You can become a member, from as little as 7p a day. You can support our fundraisers, like our annual spring auction where you could win unique fishing experiences and other fantastic prizes. You can also seek our advice and assistance to make the river(s) you fish that bit better for wild trout and lots of other wildlife – our Advisory Visits are largely free for England (thanks to Environment Agency support) and subsidised where possible elsewhere.
If you could leave the angling community with one message about the future of wild trout, what would it be?
It’s a tough time to be a trout, with tougher times to come. But we can all help, so get stuck in however you can! Whether you’re campaigning for cleaner water, or getting muddy in the river, together we can make things better.