WI walk publicising the Clean Rivers Campaign

We ended the week of awareness by organising a walk along Ober Water in Brockenhurst and inviting local organisations and campaigning groups to attend the walk.

On the afternoon of 18^th Sept, and despite a gloomy weather forecast, members of Brockenhurst WI were joined by representatives from Wild New Forest, Greener Brockenhurst, Friends of Brockenhurst, Eco Sway, Milford on Sea Bluetits, New Forest National Park Authority, New Forest Friends of the Earth and New Forest Green Party on our walk to share knowledge, pool resources and ideas as to how we can all do our bit to help bring about change.

The was sun was shining as we left Whitefield Moor car park and headed towards Ober Water.

On the way, we stopped for introductions.

Our next stop was at the bridge by Ober Water, emphasising how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful area. 

Some of our guests kindly gave us interesting and thought-provoking information on the issues involved and steps which we could take at home to help the situation.

Prof Russell Wynn, Director of Wild New Forest, said: “The freshwater habitats of the New Forest host a fantastic diversity of life, but even in this highly protected landscape they are threatened by pollution. Untreated sewage and other pollutants continue to be discharged into our rivers from waste water treatment works during periods of heavy rainfall, while there is growing concern about the potential impacts of dog-dipping on our static and slow-moving waterbodies, including increased turbidity and the shedding of flea treatments that contain chemicals harmful to aquatic fauna.”

Attendees heard about some of the positive local actions that can be taken to mitigate these threats, such as installing water butts and soakaways to capture run-off from roofs and other impermeable surfaces.

They were also updated about forthcoming research projects to better understand the local impacts of dog-dipping on aquatic fauna.

Encouragingly, there is evidence that recent wetland restoration projects in the New Forest are helping to reduce flood risk by slowing river flow and storing more water on floodplains, and that they can provide vital water sources for local wildlife and livestock during drought conditions.

Ian Barker, Ecologist for New Forest National Park Authority outlined the ‘Clean Water for Wildlife’ study carried out with the Freshwater Habitats Trust. He told us that the water quality in Ober Water is classed as ‘good’ and showed us a water testing kit.

We also heard from Graham Barker Friends of Brockenhurst about what we can do and learnt that we have a group looking at flood alleviation in Brockenhurst.

We used our beautiful setting for a photo opportunity to use in our campaigning.

We discussed local sewage leaks and sewer storm overflows, issue which have been in local and national news bulletins recently. 

We hope that showing our support for this campaign demonstrates the strength of feeling over this issue. 

The walk demonstrated that even in a group of people who are interested in the problem and supportive of trying to address the issue, we have a lot to learn. This shows how important it is that the public are kept informed of more detail, so that we can all make a difference.

Hopefully, this collaboration will continue, so we can work together with the different groups who attended the walk to bring about change.

We enjoyed a walk through the woods and back to the car park via Whitemoor.

The walk ended with tea and cake, and further discussions and exchanges of information.

Grateful thanks got to everyone who came on the walk or provided us with information. Special thanks go to Russ Wynn of Wild New Forest, Ian Baker from NFNPA and Graham Baker from Friends of Brockenhurst for speaking to us about the issues involved.

This may be the end of the week of our awareness campaign, but we hope it won’t be the end of our campaigning for this important topic that affects each and every one of us!

Thanks go to Zena and Christine K for the photos and to Evelyn and Russ for their help with this website post.