We’re Guardian Down to Earth Climate Heroes!

We’re so, so chuffed to have been named this week’s Climate Heroes in the Guardian’s Down to Earth newsletter, published on 22 October 2026.

It’s great to see the work Friends of the Dart has been doing recognised, and a big thank you to everyone who has helped make it happen.

Earlier this month, Steven Morris from the Guardian came down to meet us and wrote about our River Hub and why we set it up. The Hub brings together information about sewage spills, pollution and treatment works on the Dart, information that can be surprisingly difficult to find without making formal requests. You can read the full article, ‘It’s shocking really’: Devon community tracks River Dart sewage spills, on the Guardian website.

We built the Hub because people should be able to see what’s happening to their river. The data isn’t always easy to read, but it matters. You can’t tackle a problem properly if you can’t see the scale of it.

A lot of people have put time into this work, from testing the water and keeping an eye on pollution to digging through data and building the Hub. This recognition is for all of them, especially Rob Worthington, our director and data lead.

And it’s not just happening on the Dart! Friends of the River Teign has launched its own River Hub, and through Friends of the Rivers South West, 40 communities across Devon and Cornwall are sharing knowledge and working for healthier rivers.

This recognition shows the strength of feeling behind this issue. We all want healthy rivers, we want our bill payments to be used for infrastructure updates, we want meaningful and lasting change, and the support we have amongst the public and in the media is vital if we are to move forward.

So, thank you to Steven, Jim, Lucinda, Pej, George and everyone at the Guardian, and to everyone who supports us and the River Dart. There’s plenty still to do, but it’s good to know the work is getting noticed.

You can sign up for the Down to Earth newsletter on the Guardian website.