Earlier this month, Three Rivers District Council held their first Environmental Champions Awards ceremony to recognise local people as eco-heroes for their meaningful work to advance sustainability and environmental protection in the area. 

The awards, which took place at Watersmeet Theatre on Thursday 4 June, were attended by councillors, council officers, community leaders, as well as the award finalists, who were selected by a panel of independent judges from community and environmental organisations. 

Here, at the Trust, we were delighted to see Tony Booker awarded Adult Environmental Champion Award for his exceptional and sustained contribution to protecting and restoring the district’s precious local chalk streams. As Chair of Colne Valley Fisheries and Conservation, Tony has shown exceptional environmental leadership across the Colne Valley and Three Rivers district through decades of work improving river health, tackling pollution, restoring biodiversity, leading scientific research into water contamination, coordinating large-scale conservation projects, and developing innovative recycling initiatives that promote long-term ecological recovery and community action.

Our PR and Communications Officer, Debbie Bigg met Tony, during the spring of 2025, when she visited Sabey’s Pool, a fishery in Rickmansworth, for a tour. Here’s a first-hand account of what she found out from Tony and his colleague, Anthony Johns, about what a committed group of anglers are doing for conservation:

Walking through the ornate gate flanked by twisted vines and crossing a chalk stream, there’s a feeling of entering a secret garden as you come into Sabey’s Pool and this special site, alive with birdsong and the sporadic plop of a fish breaking the lake’s surface is indeed quite magical – it is an idyllic haven abundant with wildlife that one rarely sees in 2025.

Sabey’s Pool was a former marina, used by ‘Sabey’s’ – a company which used their boats to transport rubbish out of London. It’s been a fishery for many years since run by West Hampstead Angling and Conservation Society. One of my guides, the Society’s Environmental Advisor, Tony Booker told me how he fished there as a boy aged nine, becoming Club Secretary in his teens – it’s clear from the early introduction that Tony has poured his heart and soul into protecting this unique place. Put Tony together with my other guide, Fisheries Manager, Anthony Johns, a relatively new kid on the block, and you have a pair of anglers, who have put conservation at the very heart of their operations.

Between 2019 and 2023, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust in collaboration with Colne Valley Fisheries Consultative (now renamed as Colne Valley Fisheries and Conservation) led a project which trained over 40 fisheries managers how to maximise biodiversity alongside providing satisfying angling. With support from the Trust, the knowledge gained enabled those who completed the course to prepare their own habitat management plans, integrating fishing with wider nature conservation. Inspired by hearing about the project on the radio, Anthony bagged himself a place on the project’s conservation training course and that began a long-term relationship with the Trust. A well-informed, integrated management plan for the site ensued and what Anthony, Tony and the society’s volunteers have achieved since is truly inspirational.

Firstly, take the cutting down of trees – often a contentious subject but here there is a real case for the greater good. The additional light afforded by selective removal has increased the site’s biodiversity, with extensive nettle patches now giving way to a much more diverse range of vegetation. More light and wind reaches the lake and without fallen leaves rotting in the water, the problem of silt and stagnant water has been eradicated. This has all had a positive effect on the abundance of invertebrates and the many fish species that subsequently feed upon them – resulting in bigger fish and happy anglers!

Habitats for Water Voles have been created by planting Yellow Flag Iris, with seeds collected from existing plants grown in the on-site aquatic allotment. Volunteers at Sabey’s Pool lugged 40 tonnes of hardcore to create a more sinuous shoreline of bays and spits for Water Voles to thrive in. Now, neatly submerged in an abundance of vegetation, two distinct populations of these, our most endangered mammals thrive here, thanks to that huge physical effort. The Water Voles can take comfort from the presence of an American Mink monitoring raft too, albeit today it is virtually redundant such is the success of the Trust’s partnership with the Waterlife Recovery Trust to eradicate the predatory invasive non-native species (INNS), which has been the biggest threat to their survival over the past 50 years.

The planting of the irises has also helped to reinforce the banks of the lake, which have come under erosion from the burrowing activities of the American Signal Crayfish, another INNS, for which the fishery has an Environment Agency license to ‘trap and despatch’. Tony tells me that within a three-year period, they have trapped over 1.5 Tonnes of the unwanted guests, who are responsible for creating substantial amounts of sediment through their tunnelling.

Birdsong is at an off-the-scale level, our feathered friends seem very happy to be here and it’s easy to see why. The showiest member of their order, the Kingfisher makes frequent darting flights across the lake from its breeding ground – another of the Society’s conservation projects - a vertical bank created by the anglers with specially made nesting holes, where two or three broods a year have been raised each year since its construction.

And there’s more…Virginia Creeper, another INNS, has been controlled to enable more plant life to flourish. Fisherman’s huts on the site are made from plastic sheeting manufactured from recovered plastics found in the sea and rivers – they are also flood-proof, which is useful considering flooding events at the lake are becoming more frequent. The aquatic allotment is dominated by sedge and, according to our Conservation Manager, Tim Hill, is “one of the best fen habitats in the county”.

A maelstrom of bats appear at dusk, Grass Snakes are regularly seen and Canada Geese goslings have recently hatched…Next-up a pond is planned to provide further habitat for dragonflies and damselflies.... I could go on…there’s a lot to say about Sabey’s Pool and all of it is positive but overall, this is a fine example of the approach needed to managing land and water in the quest to turn the nature crisis around.

Well done on your award, Tony, and congratulations to all of the finalists, who make a difference for nature. The example above highlights some of the tremendous work that is being carried out on our patch and provides us and our local wildlife with hope for the future.

Find out more

If you’re a custodian of land in Hertfordshire or Middlesex and would like advice on enhancing it for wildlife, the Trust may be able to support you — contact us at info@hmwt.org

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