Here are some of the latest things our volunteers and members have been up to since March 2022: 
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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. 

Since then, we have also had three sampling days: Tuddenham Stream, Culford Stream and the source and confluence points of most of the tributaries. 

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. 

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! 

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. 

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

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. ​

Our last organised work party for this spring at Fullers Mill Garden took place on Saturday 14th March.
Unfortunately we just couldn’t complete everything we wanted to before the garden re-opens shortly. We will return later in the year!
It is hoped that by narrowing the river and speeding up the flow in this section will discourage the burr reed from completely choking the channel.
Also the addition of the new features has greatly added to the habitat diversity.
So for now it just remains to say a massive thank you to all our volunteers for their hard work, and also to the staff at Fullers Mill for pitching in, helping out with deliveries and making us very welcome.
Thank you!!

Back to Fullers Mill on 1st March to continue our Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership project.
Our super workforce managed to complete the planting of the main island interior with pre-established coir pallets and also used pallets on some exposed mud bank.
Advanced the work on the marginal revetments and started to create the brash shelving.
All of these features will add much needed in-stream habitat diversity to this reach of the Lark.
Many thanks to our wonderful volunteers for all your hard work

Cllr Susan Glossop with RLCP volunteers at Fullers Mill

After deciding to take a chance with Storm Dennis, the weather was kind to us and we managed a full session at Fullers Mill on 15th February.

All our volunteers on duty, experienced and new, put in a good shift, helping each other out and keeping each other safe. Can’t ask for more than that.

Consolidating the previous work on the island with some bare and pre-planted rolls, pre-planted pallets and brash bundles, the central  island project is now taking shape.
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We are now extending the brash revetment work upstream, the river is showing us where we need to be with that. Also, finding a silt bar gave us the opportunity of creating another island, this one a really small feature but no doubt it will become home to something.

Hi everyone, on Saturday 1st February, we kicked off our rather ambitious BFER project at Fullers Mill Garden, West Stow, well worth a visit when they reopen after the winter break.
The Lark here has been historically impounded not only by a weir but also the addition of weir boards.
On a super low gradient river like the Lark this really puts the brakes on any natural processes as the river cannot even erode anything around the man made steel and concrete impoundment to try and work around the problem.
The river can get virtually trapped.
Another huge downside of the sluggish flows is a massive growth of burr reed along the reach, as seen in the first image.

We have managed to get the boards removed, (many thanks to Fullers and the EA) lowering the river immediately upstream by nearly a metre and releasing an impounded river length of nearly 1 km.
The project now is centred around creating higher velocity channels within the lowered but still over wide river channel.
This project will run for a while and we will keep you updated on progress and
methods used.
Massive thanks to all at Fullers, the Environment Agency and especially our volunteers who turned up and put in a big shift to get the ball rolling.
So far so good……….