Big River Watch 6th-12th September 2024

Julie took part in the “Big River Watch” and surveyed stretches of local rivers during 6th-12th September and wrote the following:

“The first 3 surveys were conducted along Ober Water and I was delighted that no litter was spotted in the water on these occasions, even after The New Forest Marathon had been through the area, so well done to the considerate runners. Litter is one of the criteria to look out for.

There had been 2 days of rain and the water was flowing, but at a slow pace. On the whole it looked clean and the bottom of the riverbed could be seen, but a few places had ‘foam’ on it.

A family of Grey Wagtails were spotted, which was nice to see. Although these were logged on the app, they don’t appear in the data!

Further surveys on Ober Water showed some small fish and some water insects, an indication that the river is healthy.

Three surveys were also undertaken on the Lymington River.

The first was at Balmer Lawn, what is know locally as ‘Brock Beach, a popular spot with locals and tourists alike. In summer, this is quite often an area strewn with litter, but the local litter pickers had been out in force and apart from one plastic bottle in the water, this stretch of river was litter free.

There was an area that looked like it was polluted.

A survey was also done on another stretch of the Lymington River, downstream from ‘Brock beach’ from the garden of a WI member, who kindly gave me permission.

The water here was clear and the bottom could be seen. There was a tin can in the water which had been washed downstream. A heron was seen nearby and birds were singing close by.

The third area that I surveyed was further downstream and downstream from the Southern Water Water Treatment plant.

The water in this area was more generally murky here.

I did see a Dragonfly though!

It was interesting taking part in some ‘Citizen Science’ and the overall impression of our local waterways is that it’s healthy.

Here are the initial findings of the survey:

I will definitely take part in future surveys.”

Brockenhurst WI will be taking part in further ‘Citizen Science’ when we do some water testing on the above stretches of water when we take part in the Great UK WaterBlitz and we will report on this later in the week.

#BigRiverWatch