September along the Wey
Another busy month!
This month Water Testing Weekend is 25th -28th September
Please test between Friday 25th and Monday 28th September, and don’t forget to upload your results!
August wrapped up with a great kick sampling session at Allee’s Meadow, mostly familiar faces but a good few new ones too. It’s always brilliant to welcome people in for the first time so come and join us for the September session, Sunday 27th, 10-12pm; details of where and how to find us are here : riverweytrust.org.uk/volunteer
With the bursts of rain we have been having and the high E. coli results last month, it will be interesting to see what happens this month. When you sample, you can make a note of your surroundings which might help fill in some gaps. For example, muck spreading or cattle in the water. Everything helps us build a picture, which can then lead to open conversations with different groups.
What we have been up to…
September started as it meant to go on: very busy with events, conferences and a lot of water samples collected.
Conferences and a bigger view of the water world
The River Wey Trust and Water Rangers were invited to attend and have a table at the Better Water for All Network+ conference, where we met lots of people keen to learn about E. coli testing. Alistair was one of the keynote speakers, describing how Weight of Evidence is a key part of supporting good science, and encouraging academic researchers to use it to give their work more context. The conference brought together cutting-edge research, interdisciplinary discussion, networking and professional development across the whole field of water, and it was great to sit in a lecture theatre full of people working hard to understand wastewater, recycling and flood management.
It was lovely to see one of the lab leads who helps out at our community lab at ZERO Carbon Guildford, Ezra Porter, take first place for a presentation on Biocoatings for Biological Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater, judged by Prof Russell Davenport. Well done, Ezra! We’re immensely inspired by your work and so proud of what you’ve achieved.
The next day took us to the River Summit in Henley-on-Thames, listening to debates, meeting new and familiar faces, and hearing about new technology that can pick up chemicals, eDNA (environmental DNA) and all sorts of other potential nasties in a river. A good reminder that we’re part of something much bigger than just our own stretch of the Wey.
Water voles: the best bit
Watching so many water voles head back into the river was the best part of my month. It was the first time I’d ever seen one, and by the end of the day I’d seen over 100. Each one was scooped from its transport pen and checked by an expert, using the trusty Pringles tin, before going into a release cage. This photo really shows the water vole’s characteristic star-shaped foot splay, quite different from a rat’s, whose toes tend to point forward.
Welcoming Water Voles to the Wey – South East Rivers Trust
An army of volunteers, including children from a local school, turned out to help, through pouring rain and then brilliant sunshine. They carried the release cages out to some of the prettiest and most remote stretches of the Wey, fed the voles for several days, and then, once the voles had moved on, went back out to bring the empty cages home. A proper mammoth task, and we’re so grateful to everyone who showed up for it.
This latest release adds to what’s already a brilliant comeback story. Water voles disappeared from this part of the Wey more than 20 years ago, and their numbers fell by a staggering 93 percent across England over the last century, so every one that goes back in matters. The first release of 190 water voles happened last August across six sites on the South Wey. Another 290 went into the North Wey this May, with the earlier ones already confirmed settling in with burrows, feeding signs and footage from remote cameras. This month saw 280 voles released between Frensham and Elstead, covering the confluence of the main branches of the river.
The voles all left home pretty quickly this time too, which is a great sign, and the team already reckon they’ve spotted new burrows. Good luck, little guys. Welcome back to the Wey.
Tillingbourne
Earlier in the month we had the results of the eDNA testing from two spots on the Tillingbourne which have been showing high levels of E. coli in the regular weekly samples.
Anna was out collecting the samples for analysis by Trace Biomonitoring. These tests were to establish the sources of faecal bacteria, and reported that these levels of pollution are entirely from animal sources, not a trace of human faecal matter.
The levels sourced from ‘avian’ and ‘horse’ seen at the Shere sample site were surprising, and give the Tillingbourne Project a detective challenge to understand how and where this is getting to the river in significant volumes.
Behind the scenes
We’ve been busy with packing parties, so huge thanks again to the volunteers who show up and help with all that. As always there are plenty of opportunities to help with stock, either counting it, packing up kits or restocking the shelves.
Our community lab is regularly processing around 12 E. coli samples a week at the moment. The hubs are all very well organised now so collecting and delivery to the lab is a very smooth operation. There are potentially sample collecting and delivery roles in Haslemere so please get in touch if you think you can help.
And of course there is our youngest volunteer who helps me out whenever she can, either collecting rubbish or sorting stock.
A fundraising swim and a big turnout at Zero Carbon
We had a good day filming on the Wey, with a swim at St Catherine’s. With the help of ZERO Carbon Guildford and the local community, we hit our funding target of £1,250, which means we can carry on testing that site every week for E. coli and monthly chemistry testing.
We also had an amazing turnout for our Water Quality event at ZERO Carbon on Saturday 19th. Over 60 people came along, a great mix of familiar faces and new ones we were thrilled to welcome. After the update slideshow and learning about the problems of agricultural phosphates, we got stuck into Riverfly kick sampling, which went down a treat. If you want to join us for our next session in Liphook see here for details.
Thursday packing parties
We’d love a hand with our shop and getting kit ready, so if you fancy joining me for that, please sign up here.
Thank you to all the amazing volunteers who have been helping me out, it really makes such a difference.
Testing demonstrations
Once a month on the second Tuesday of the month, I’ve been running a freshwater kit testing demonstration down by the river. The session starts in the lab with a quick introduction to Water Rangers and the River Wey Trust, a tour around the lab, and then we head to the water. These sessions are a great way to get started if you’re curious about volunteering with us. Thank you to everyone who showed up! Sign up through My Impact.
What’s coming up
This week is Rivers Week, so if you’re up to anything, please let us know.
We would really value you taking part in the Big River Watch. The Big River Watch | The Rivers Trust. You have until 24th September to upload your results. It takes just 15 minutes and helps build a bigger picture of river health across the UK and Ireland, data that’s already led to real fixes like removing fish migration barriers. It matters even more this September, since it’ll show how rivers are coping after such a hot, dry summer.
Please follow us on social media for updates:
Water Rangers Facebook
Water Rangers Instagram
Water Rangers LinkedIn
River Wey Trust Instagram
River Wey Trust Facebook
And a small ask: if you have a freshwater test kit sitting in a cupboard that you’re not using anymore, please get in touch. We’d love to lend it on to someone who’s just getting started.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for everything you did with us this August and September. See you on the riverbank!
Want to know more and help?
If you’d like to know more about our weekly and monthly volunteering roles, have a look here. Sign up for sessions or register to become a volunteer by clicking here or send me an email!
We’re always open to funding grants, so if you know anyone or have any ideas, please get in touch. And thank you to those who have been working on this kind of thing.
And as always, we love hearing about what you’re up to on the water. Send us your stories from along the Wey, and we’ll share them with everyone. I have yet to have a story, maybe you will be the first one!
See you on the water and happy testing,
Alex
