Guerilla guardianship on the River Roding

 Here's the YouTube blurb for this film:

The Roding is London’s largest forgotten river. Out on the eastern fringe of the city, it endures every modern indignity: scythed by motorways and concrete bridges; choked with sewage and rubbish; canalised, fly-tipped, retail-parked, thickened with the polluted slime of London clay. It is a forbidding place to call home. 

Yet in 2017 that is what the environmental barrister, Paul Powlesland, set out to do. Embarking on a hair-raising journey up the Thames on a tiny narrowboat (his propeller nearly fell off on route) he made it to the mouth of the Roding, chugging upstream to anchor among the reeds. His mission: to protect the river and speak for its rights. The River Roding Trust was born. 

Seven years later Right to Roam visited the Roding to team up with Paul and the Trust to highlight this incredible story of guerrilla guardianship. Alongside the local community we planted trees, created hibernacula for reptiles and amphibians and tackled the endless crust of rubbish washed in by the tide.

We believe that access to land and water is about more than just recreation. Instead it can be the start of a new relationship with nature, where we connect in order to protect. A concept we call Wild Service.

Yet currently only 8 per cent of land in England has a "right to roam" and only 3 per cent of rivers enjoy an uncontested right of access – a major obstacle to community guardianship. We’re campaigning for that to change.

If you're interested in these issues, you may enjoy The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes.