In the beginning of July we were still in the midst of the #3RiversCleanUp, so our wonderful volunteers were busy removing Himalayan balsam from our waterways. There was less balsam on the catchment than in previous years, testament to our volunteers fantastic efforts each year. We do have a few sites lower down the catchment, like Brookmill Park, which are hit harder by the invasive plant, but it’s still no match for our volunteer effort!
Later in the month, we started on a plastic clearance project in the middle of Lewisham town centre. Wading upstream from Cornmill Gardens we’d identified a fallen willow earlier in the year which needed a bit of maintenance so it didn’t block the whole width of the channel and to remove all the plastic detritus that had been caught by it. As a rule we don’t remove all deadwood/ fallen branches from the river as they create brilliant ecological niches for some animals to use. In this case a whole shoal of chub were sheltering behind it in the still water, perfect spawning and sheltered space for young fish.
Amongst the litter we do occasionally come across offerings to the river, in most circumstances we do leave these within the water as most are made of materials that eventually break down, and it’s wonderful to see people have that connection with our rivers. Unfortunately we do sometimes find plastic offerings, or items within plastic bags that need to be removed for the health of the river.
Rivers and People 