Emily M Lewisham Rivers, Volunteer

Rivers & People Volunteer Programme [January – March 2024]

New Year, New You? Don’t want to pay a gym fee to be indoors working out? Why not join us once a week in the Rivers of Lewisham? Plus, whilst you do that you are actively helping the blue spaces within the borough!

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.

Emily M Lewisham Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in December

December is a shorter month for our volunteers, and with our final and 40th session of the year taking place on December 12th we celebrated with mince pies, yule log and other snacks… after 2 heavy hours building a berm!

From me, I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all our wonderful volunteers working to keep Lewisham’s rivers so healthy and encouraging others to learn more about this great part of the borough. A special thanks especially to the #RiversandPeople volunteers who join me every week to get waders on and get into the river to make practical improvements- I’m looking forward to 2024 where we can do even more!

One project that will continue into the new year is the new berm our group is building in the middle field of Ladywell Fields, we’ve put the posts in, weaved the frame, and we’ll be back in mid-January to build up the bank.

Emily M Lewisham Parks, Lewisham Rivers, Rivers

Volunteer Sessions in November

The volunteers have been all across the borough this month, starting with visiting the regeneration works at Beckenham Place Park (East). We also cleared trapped debris from the recent heavy rains, especially with fallen trees down over the channel.

Combining forces with the Friends of the River Pool, we thinned a section of hazel for a future project in another Lewisham Park where we needed long malleable lengths for weaving. This was a testing day of weather as the light rain predicted was actually a downpour- but the volunteers persevered.

Emily M Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in October

October gave us the perfect weather for working in the rivers in Lewisham, dry and cool enough to still be working in t-shirts! This time at Chinbrook Meadows we were working on the wildlife pond, clearing more of the willow surrounding and blocking light into the pond, and removing any silted islands that were growing vegetation to halt succession from happening on the pond. The pond itself would benefit from being desilted, so we’re keeping an eye out for any funding to hire a mini-digger to help us out in the future. For now, our volunteer group and the wonderful Friends of Chinbrook Meadows are continuing to monitor wildlife in and around the pond.

Another spot we’ve been working on this month is the area under the Ladywell Road bridge in Ladywell Fields. This is a special location for us to work in as it’s near to one of Lewisham’s kingfisher nest boxes, so we only work in the areas nearby outside of their nesting season.

There was a huge fig tree growing into the channel and blocking debris in teh channel, so we spent a few hours working on the lower branches of the tree and allowing the full width of the channel to flow as intended. It’s also a good time to note that sadly this area is affected by litter thrown from the bridge above, but during these volunteer sessions our team get into the undergrowth to prevent this litter from entering the river.

NB: Our volunteer on the left hand image doesn’t normally wander under bridges with a pruning saw but as it was halloween the photo opportunity seemed to good to miss! #SpookySeason

Emily M Lewisham Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in August

August brought the volunteer team some hot weather, so being in the river was a pleasant break from the heat! We started the month working on the boardwalk section of Cornmill Gardens, removing plants that had grown up through teh accessible viewing platform then reducing the vegetation height so you can get a clear view of the river. One bonus from our time at Cornmill was we got to watch Lewisham town centre’s resident peregrine falcons flying overhead!

We’ve also continued the job of clearing eel tiles around the catchment, and monitored the areas where we know siltation happens in backwaters and small channels.

We were also very lucky to have Philippa Nicholls, European Eel Officer, from Thames21 come along to our group and present on London’s European Eel population and some of the challenges and obstacles they face within the Ravensbourne Catchment.

Emily M Volunteer

Rivers & People Volunteer Programme [October – December 2023]

Autumn/ Winter is when we can get many of our hands on practical tasks done as most of the wildlife on the banks are hunkering down for the colder period. Why not join our Tuesday volunteer sessions? 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.

Emily M 3 Rivers Clean Up, Lewisham Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in July

Continuing on from last month, we spent the first couple of weeks in July taking part in the 3 Rivers Clean Up. After 3 weeks of being in river we removed over 5000 Himalayan balsam plants from the River Quaggy and River Ravensbourne.

One fantastic sighting when we were downstream of Manor Park was a large European Eel feeding amongst the gravel riverbed. Can you spot it in the photo below?

Whilst in Manor Park it was also wonderful to look at the bug hotels that the 12th North Lewisham Scout Group have been looking after.

Emily M Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in May

May saw a varied programme for our volunteers, from taking part in the EU-wide Preventing Plastic Pollution‘s #PlasticBlitz event to water quality testing to heavy silt removal in a pond fed by one of Lewisham’s rivers.

We were also joined by a group of students from Goldmith’s University who are looking into prevalence of plastics and invasive species in Rivers in urban areas.

Emily M Lewisham Rivers, Rivers, Volunteer

Volunteer Sessions in January

We started 2023 with a sunny session at Cornmill Gardens, where we cut back any branches overhanging the river and clearing all the twigs that had collected on the bank from the recent rains. We don’t remove any of the deadwood from the site, but rather move it further up the bank to create habitat piles that won’t get washed downstream.

Next up we visited the River Quaggy, at Chinbrook Meadows, where we de-silted the secondary channel that feeds into the pond and wetland area. Also that afternoon, our diligent volunteers scraped the leaf litter from the boardwalks to make them easier and safer to walk on.

After a wet December where we couldn’t get easy access to the Ladywell Field backwater channel, we returned to finish the de-silting here. The heavy digging work certainly lent itself to an extra biscuit with our tea afterwards!

Our last session of the month was in the north of the borough at Brookmill Park, where we completed our bank work to allow any pedestrians a sight line down onto the river. As an added bonus we came across a common frog, Rana temporaria, and two common toads, Bufo bufo, which is one of Lewisham’s priority action species.

An excerpt from Lewisham Council’s Biodiversity Action Plan ‘A Natural Renaissance for Lewisham (2021-2026)’

Amphibian species populations are declining at an alarming rate globally and despite its
name and that it is found throughout Britain the Common Toad is not so common anymore. A study in 2016 found a significant decline (68%) of the species in the UK since 1980s with an even steeper decline in South East England (www.froglife.org)

Common Toads breed in ponds but spend most of their lives on land away from water, walking (and not hopping) around at night looking for slugs, snails, spiders and other invertebrates. They spend winter buried under log piles, stones, leaf litter or compost heaps. Adult toads usually migrate back to their birth pond to breed which is becoming
more and more difficult with fences and busy roads blocking their way in urban areas. The disappearance of ponds in gardens and open spaces and two amphibian diseases (Ranavirus and Chytridiomycosis) pose further threats to toads. The Common Toad is protected from trade and sale under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) and was identified as a priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in 2007.

References
– Volunteer Conservation Action Data Reveals Large-Scale and Long-Term Negative Population
Trends of a Widespread Amphibian, the Common Toad (Bufo bufo); Petrovan SO, Schmidt BR
(2016) Volunteer Conservation Action Data Reveals Large-Scale and Long-Term Negative
Population Trends of a Widespread Amphibian, the Common Toad (Bufo bufo). PLOS ONE
– https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/69/schedule/5
– https://www.froglife.org/what-we-do/education/london-t-o-a-d/
– https://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/

Emily M Thames21

Plasticblitz 2023! Sign up now

Thames21 has once again joined forces with the Environment Agency and Rotary to call on volunteering, community and environmental groups to come forward and sign up to the Plasticblitz 2023 and take part in a mass clean-up of waste from water bodies between Sat 27th May to Sun 11th June 2023.

The Plasticblitz event has grown in numbers year on year, starting as a local trial event before expanding to cover the Thames region, and now as a first for the Plasticblitz, it is extending across the UK! This year we are aiming for the Plasticblitz to be bigger and better than ever, and we would love your support!

Participating groups will also be asked to collect data on the types of plastic pollution they find during their events, allowing us to build an evidence base on the extent to which plastic and other materials are threatening our rivers. This data will feed into the EU wide Preventing Plastic Pollution project. There are both bank-based and boat/canoe/paddle-based methods available, with specific Environment Agency teams tackling assets such as weirs, locks and trash screens.

Please note, as Plasticblitz events are self-led, participating groups must risk assess their own events and be covered by public liability insurance.

Please complete this form to sign up today!