 The River Lark at Fullers Mill, July 2022 Here are some of the latest things our volunteers and members have been up to since March 2022: Fullers Mill Work Parties Once we had finished the project at Flempton Bridge, we returned to Fullers Mill to install 6 tonnes of gravel into the river! This was hard, physical work, but will massively improve the biodiversity in the river, improving the habitats for invertebrates and spawning grounds for fish, and therefore helping birds and mammals as well. Huge thanks to Glenn and all the volunteers who came to help us. Tributaries Group - Water Quality Testing Our Tributaries Group had their first sampling day in March, doing a snapshot sample of all of the tributaries near the confluence points with the River Lark. Tributaries Snapshot Sampling Day, Fullers Mill, March 2022 Since then, we have also had three sampling days: Tuddenham Stream, Culford Stream and the source and confluence points of most of the tributaries. Tuddenham Stream Sampling Day, March 2022 Culford Stream Sampling Day, April 2022 Tributaries Source and Confluence Sampling Day, May 2022 The pollution group will be discussing how we use the data we collect, and where we will be sampling from the Autumn. Promoting RLCP at Events Some of our fantastic volunteers have been representing RLCP at various events in Bury St Edmunds since May. Thanks to Graham, Caroline, Andrew and Steph for manning the RLCP stall at two Eco Markets and the Bury BioBlitz in the Abbey Gardens. We have had some really great discussions with members of the public and we have picked up some new members and supporters. Caroline and Graham manning the RLCP Stall, Bury Eco Markets and Bury BioBlitz Information Board Installed at West Stow Country Park Our second information board is now installed on the path next to the Lark at West Stow Country Park (the first one is at Fullers Mill Gardens) and celebrates all the hard work of our volunteers back in the Autumn last year along with our friends at Bury Trout Club. Do have a look next time you are walking along the river!  Steph with the noticeboard at West Stow Himalayan Balsam Alongside our friends at Bury Water Meadows Group, our volunteers have been hard at work in the last few weeks helping to survey for and remove himalayan balsam along the river bank from Bury up to Hengrave. Thank you to all our volunteers who braved the heatwave, humidity, nettles and mosquitoes to help us keep this invasive species under control. Special thanks to Glenn for leading our work parties with his usual dedication and humour. Himalayan Balsam Work Parties July and August 2022 We are looking forward to seeing some of our volunteers and members over the summer and plans are well under way for our Autumn programme of restoration and citizen science projects.
Steph Holland  Some of our RLCP Volunteers working at Flempton Bridge, February 2022 Our work parties restarted in January and it was wonderful for our volunteers to get back together again. Here are some of the things we have been doing in the last few months: Flempton Bridge We had to cancel the penultimate work party in February due to storm Eunice, but we managed to fit in three sessions in January and February. Our volunteers have achieved an amazing amount in a short space of time! We've installed log deflectors, created brash bundle shelving and started cutting a lot of instream willow branches. Thank you to everyone who braved the cold weather and gave such a lot of effort and enthusiasm. Tributaries Group As part of our pollution group, we launched our tributary water quality monitoring project in February with a training day held at Tuddenham Mill, which was delivered by Sam Hurst and Zac Battams from Norfolk Rivers Trust. You can see some pictures from our training day below.  The Tributaries Water Quality Testing Group at Tuddenham Stream  The RLCP would like to thank Cllrs Glossop, Hopfensperger, Harvey and Nobel for their generous support of the Tributaries Water Monitoring Project. They have each used some of their district and county council locality funding budget to enable us to buy testing equipment including a Lovibond MD 610 colorimeter and some reagents for us to test for things such as ammonia, suspended solids, phosphates, nitrates and nitrites. We would also like to thank the Environment Agency for some funding towards training to use the new equipment. Pollution Group visit to Fornham Water Recycling Centre A few members of the pollution group were treated (excuse the pun...) to a very informative and interesting tour of the sewage works at Fornham in February. It was truly eye opening to see how the process works and to meet the very dedicated team of managers who look after the whole region's waste water. We left feeling very enthusiastic about the positive relationship between us and Anglian Water and their commitment to tackle pollution in the River Lark. A huge thank you to managers Claire, Andy, Alan, Grant and our regular liaison, Sam Westwood for a very enjoyable afternoon.  |
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