Every year our Rivers & People volunteers take part in the PlasticBlitz scheme run by Thames21. This is a 2 week period where we itemise exactly what types of litter and any prevalent brands that we are finding in our rivers and their banks in Lewisham.
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.
First up in June, our team of volunteers tackled the weir in Ladywell Fields, next to the Kenneth White Bridge and hospital. At this time of year the water level is low enough to allow us safe access onto the gabions to clear any obstructions caught on the weir itself. The larger area of branches and brash on the side gets removed by the Environment Agency periodically.
Heading downstream and through the secondary channel we found this old Sainsbury’s reward card which expired in Dec 1999! Shows how long plastics will remain in our environment and waterways.
Elsewhere in the catchment, the lovely riverfly monitoring volunteers Tom and Julia were in the middle field in Ladywell fields performing a kick sample.
The volunteer session programme has now been released for October to December 2023. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
May was a month of variety with tasks. Starting off with a wade from Ladywell Fields (North) to Riverdale Sculpture Park, where we both litter picked and did some maintenance on lower tree branches/ fallen trees that were blocking the river channel.
Following that session, we spent a few weeks finishing off our berm in Ladywell Fields (Middle). The horizontal struts were put in to secure the added soil and brash bundles to the banks, a ridge to catch silt in the winter months when the river flows higher, and some finishing touches of planting pendulous sedge.
Heading to the River Quaggy later in the month meant climbing into the channel in Manor House Gardens and working our way up towards Lee High Road. Here we focused on a thorough litter pick to remove anything that had been dropped in (Especially near pedestrian bridges). One in particular a hotspot for disposable vapes- which we recycle separately due to the lithium batteries
April has been a month of building and fixing for our team of volunteers. Starting the month with rebuilding the steps to the river in Brookmill Park to clearing the boardwalk in Chinbrook Meadows of encroaching vegetation. At Chinbrook Meadows we were working along the River Quaggy’s floodplain removing dominant nettles in two areas to allow for a richer, more diverse array of plants to grow.
We’ve also had some trying weather on some days, with thunderstorms and hail during tea breaks to whipping wind whilst wading (quite a tongue twister there!)
Lewisham’s river is also diverse in it’s appearance, with some areas still being fully encased in concrete and ominous to approach to wonderfully wild and green spaces. Just upstream and downstream from Cornmill Gardens you can find nature competing with street art for the wall space, creating stunning pockets tucked under developments.
March has seen our volunteers working in the ponds adjacent to some of Lewisham’s rivers. Mid-March generally marks the common toad migration in London, and as one of our 8 priority species within Lewisham we survey the ponds and migration routes at this time of year. Our volunteer sessions changed from morning and afternoon to being ‘in the parks after dark’, one of these ponds that we surveyed was Bell Green Pond (alongside and connected to the River Pool). Common frogs, smooth newts & common toads all found, with common toads seen in mating pairs and toadspawn present.
Onto another set of ponds in the borough, but this time brand new ponds being planted up by Thames21 and our volunteers. Purple Loosestrife, Brooklime, Yellow Flag Iris are a few of the plant species that have recently been planted in.
In this blog conservation student Riley talks us through his placement with Glendale’s Nature Conservation Officer
Monday 25th March
I met one of the volunteer bird surveyors at the meeting spot in Hilly Fields and we sat down and got to know each other as we waited for the others to arrive. I immediately felt welcomed despite I have never done birdwatching before. The lady I met first at the meet up spot spent the majority of the day teaching me all kinds of bird and tree species and also taught me how to tell which birds are around by their singing.
The whole three hours went fast! The entire experience for me was relaxing and because I have always loved to learn about nature, this was an excellent experience. I even got to see two uncommon birds for Hilly Fields which were the Green woodpecker and a red kite!
I then did another task at Mayow Park, elsewhere in the borough, with different volunteers where I learnt how to plant tree whips and put guards on which I have never done before and it was an awesome feeling after I was able to do it all by myself. I know this is considered as a job to do these things but I genuinely felt joy and it did not whatsoever feel like a chore to me.
Another positive thing I’ve found doing this volunteering was communication. It was easy to talk to people I have never spoken too because every volunteer was welcoming and approachable. This was especially beneficial for me because of my autism I have found it hard to talk to people I don’t know, so this was really good practice for me to develop communication skills.
Tuesday 26th March
I went to Chinbrook meadows and I got to go in a newly built pond with a group of volunteers to plant some aquatic plants, helped make a dead hedgerow and litter picked the surrounding area. Everyone in the group is very kind and joyful because of being passionate about the type of work we were all doing. There was this one volunteer I started talking to during tea break and I told her about how my lecturer told me that conservation isn’t for me because I’m more aware of my surroundings and they reassured me to never let someone tell me what I can and can’t do and how I possibly even could have more to offer in the industry than I think. It was a long discussion and it really uplifted me, she was a very pleasant person to talk to. That just goes to show how great it is to volunteer in this group. I find it also easier to talk to people in this community due to relevant interests and you can talk for hours because there is so much about the industry such as different plant species, wildlife etc. I really enjoyed myself today.
Thursday 27th March
Today I built my first bug hotel! As a group we stacked up 4 or 5 wooden pallets and then gathered materials such as sticks and cut dried bamboo lengths to put into the bug hotel as sheltering space for insects and invertebrates. After we did that we applied chickenwire around the top of the bug hotel to prevent the sticks from falling out and to prevent any hazard to the public.
I also had the opportunity to put vertical logs into the ground which acts as food and shelter source for insects and invertebrates, these were called loggeries (A vital use of deadwood for the stag beetle lifecycle). During this volunteering I felt like I fit in and I felt welcomed to the group of volunteers where most of them I did not know.
February was a busy and very wet working month for our volunteers, we fixed brash bundles into our berm in our ongoing Ladywell Fields (middle field) project and weaved the main ‘wall’ of the structure with coppiced hazel and lime that was situated alongside the river.
For the latter half of the month we were digging out reeds, iris and encroaching grasses from the ephemeral pool alongside the secondary channel in Ladywell Fields. Although the recent wet weather made it easier to dig the soil, it was still a heavy and very mucky task to do!
It’s January and the Rivers & People volunteers are back in the water! After heavy rain and storms you’ll notice that the banks collect both litter and fallen branches. some of which restrict the flow of the river and mean that the banks burst. Our group started the year at Cornmill Gardens and was busy clearing the dipping platform of debris. We also managed to collect 8 bags of rubbish and a bicycle from the banks, collected by the Glendale park cleansing team.
At Chinbrook Meadows, our volunteers continued cutting back the overhanging willows and other trees around the pond to allow more light onto the water’s surface. Whilst there we cleared an obstruction in the River Quaggy to reduce localised flooding onto the path adjacent.
Rivers and People 