An enjoyable albeit chilly morning learning how to assess the health of the River Blackwater at Rowhill Nature Reserve. Alistair (trustee of River Wey Trust) showed how to collect and identify the collected sample – which surprisingly had more than 200 shrimp of varying sizes (plus a couple of leeches!). The morning concluded with chemical testing the water which was good on nitrates and phosphates so relatively unpolluted so near the river’s source.
“You’d expect the water to be clean so close to the source. It emerges from the sphagnum bog at Rowhill. There’s no road run off and no sewage outflow or farmland to affect it. Much more interesting results to be found further along!”



