Elstow Brook Water Rangers

Alongside regular water quality testing for phosphates and nitrates, we are going to start surveying Riverfly populations in the local brook.  My wife and I recently took part in a training day where we learnt how to sample, sort and identify eight key invertebrates to help study the health of these local water bodies.  The data collected is part of the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative, a nationwide citizen science programme. Through regular surveys long-term data on Riverfly populations, is collected,  providing valuable information on the health of our rivers. Riverflies are invertebrates that spend most of their life cycle living in freshwater. They are highly sensitive to changes in water quality, which makes them useful indicators of river health.  To look at it you might not think your local stream is teeming with life, but scratch the surface and the story might be quite different.  The survey involves sampling the water for 3 minutes, moving across and alo...

 I'm Richard and with my wife Anne, and the occasional help from our two grandsons, we've started to monitor the health of Elstow Brook. The brook consists of two bodies of water, an upstream and downstream section that are joined by Harrowden Brook on the lower side of the A421 near Harrowden and Shortstown. The brook continues its journey through Cardington and Cople to Willington where it joins the Great Ouse not far from Danish Camp. Currently we test the water for phosphates, nitrates and chlorine. We also measure pH, temperature, TDS (total dissolved solids) and a few other things. We do using a test kit from an organisation called Water Rangers at four sites along the brook from Abbeyfields to Willington. We test the water on a monthly basis and upload the data to an online database. We also volunteer with the Bedfordshire Great Ouse Valley Environmental Trust doing regular water testing on the river. Along with our regular water testing we're about to embark on a n...