About Me

Chalkstreams.org is run by me – Charles Rangeley-Wilson – a writer and conservationist with a lifelong passion for rivers and most of all for chalk-streams.

I caught the chalk-stream bug and became interested in river restoration in the early 1990s when working as a teacher in Dorset. I met Simon Cain and inspired by his work at Ballington Manor on the River Wylye began a restoration project on the River Stour, in the grounds of the school.

I founded the Wild Trout Society in 1997 which went on to become the Wild Trout Trust. Since then I’ve served as voluntary director and then President. I am currently honoured to serve as one of several vice-presidents.

I have also worked with WWF UK on various campaigns and reports including Rivers on the Edge , the 2014 State of England’s Chalk Streams report and Flushed Away.

In 2011 I co-founded the Norfolk Rivers Trust with sponsorship from WWF and Coca Cola wrote The River Nar Catchment Restoration Strategy.

Since then I have been coordinating a catchment-scale programme of restoration on the River Nar.

In 2014 I received the Bernard Venables Award for wild trout conservation. I am also an Angling Trust ambassador and a Vice President of the Wye and Usk Foundation, whose marvellous work I wholeheartedly support as a beacon of excellence in the rivers trust movement.

Since late 2020 I have been chairing the CABA Chalk Streams Restoration Group.

On June 2nd 2022 I was thrilled to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘services to chalk stream conservation’.