[7] In January 1883 The Cornishman newspaper reported that an estimated £42,000 worth of tin went down the river and many thousands of pounds yearly are made by ″the squatters″ who set up machinery and harvest the waste products of the mines.

[8][9] Two years later, in July 1885 the newspaper reported there were twenty-nine ″works″ employing 861 people in reworking the tinsand and slime which escaped from the mines upstream.

[10] Within Tuckingmill Valley Park is a small island containing the remains of a chimney stack, brick scrubber building and collapsed flue.

Arsenic was used as a pesticide for the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) in the cotton fields of the United States, as well as in the paint and dye industry producing new colours such as canary yellow and emerald green.

[11] Following the closure of the last mine, South Crofty, in 1998, the Red River has lost its distinctive colour, and natural ecology and biodiversity are being re-established.

The Red River is one of the most modified streams in the UK due to centuries of mining which has led to heavy metal contamination and the realignment of the course.

Other dragonflies include the common darter (Sympetrum striolatum) and the once rare migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) which usually fly in August and September.

The invasive plants, parrot feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) is regularly removed by hand to prevent its spread, and the growth of Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) has been restricted by chemical treatment.