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The Riverfly Partnership Newsletter October 2023

From the team

Season’s greetings to all. December is here again, and the end of the year is fast approaching. What a whirlwind year it’s been for the team here at RPHQ. Since the FBA secured funding for development over the next three years, we have recruited, and the team has tripled. We’ve launched a new database on Cartographer. We carried out a survey of the volunteer network. Our social media channels have been brought to life by Beth and Ellen has whipped the newsletter into shape. RPHQ is buzzing with plans for 2024, though all three of us are also very much looking forward to a well-deserved break over the festive season. Wishing you and yours very happy holidays!


Trine, Beth and Ellen.

From October 2023 to December 2023, you have:

•  Uploaded 599 records.

•  Captured information from 409 sites, in 204 rivers, across 86 catchments.

•  Highlighted 9 trigger level breaches.

2023 Data Report

Beth has been busy looking at your riverfly monitoring results from the whole year, and has summarised them in a lovely data report, which you can find on our website here.

If you’d like to see any of the charts/tables provided in this report created specifically for your group, please contact beth@riverflies.org.

Crayfish Guidance for Riverfly Monitors

There is one native species of crayfish found in the UK — the white-clawed crayfish, which is under threat due to the invasive non-native North American signal crayfish. Vanessa Barlow, the Crayfish Stakeholder Officer at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, has kindly written up some new guidance on what to do if you come across crayfish whilst carrying out Riverfly surveys in England and Wales. Click here to see the full guidance.

The list of dos and don’ts are as follows:

  • Do leave all crayfish where you find them — it is illegal to take crayfish away from the riverbank. If you accidentally capture an invasive crayfish, you can legally release it back where you caught it.

  • Do report crayfish sightings to the EA and the INNS mapper even if you are unsure of the species, with a photo of the crayfish’s rostrum (nose) if possible, as this will help with identification.  

  • Do practise ‘Check Clean Dry — this will help to prevent the spread of crayfish plague and other invasive non-native species.

  • Don’t kill crayfish you accidentally catch, as crayfish species can often be misidentified, especially when they are small. Killing invasive species you accidentally catch will have no impact on the population and risks spreading crayfish plague.

  • Don’t pick up any species of crayfish (unless authorised to do so). White-clawed crayfish are a protected species, meaning it is illegal to handle them, and unnecessarily handling signal crayfish could contribute to the spread of crayfish plague.


Please note this guidance is specific to the England and Wales. Please see SEPA’s guidance here if you are a Riverfly monitor in Scotland, and Invasive Species Northern Ireland’s guidance here if you are in NI.

The native white-clawed crayfish

The native white-clawed crayfish — Laurie Ramsey

Meet the monitor

This month, the spotlight is on Richard Andrews, a monitor with the Riverfly on the Esk group in Scotland.  

Richard speaking at the Scottish Freshwater Group Autumn Meeting 2023

Richard speaking at the Scottish Freshwater Group Autumn Meeting 2023

Richard says:

“My journey to riverfly surveying began when I was a small boy. I was given a book – “Looking at Nature” by Elsie Proctor and one of the pictures was of a Mayfly larva, with three tails! Excited by my new-found knowledge I spent even more time in our local rivers, looking for three-tailed larvae, both for its own sake and for the enjoyment of impressing other people with my expertise. I remember that what I mostly found were what I now know to be flat-bodied mayfly nymphs. (Incidentally, I also once came across a native crayfish, though sadly nowadays their range is much reduced.)

“I maintained my interest in natural history and eventually studied zoology at university, although the first half of my career was in investment and I now work for myself as an executive coach. A few years ago I realised that I had a natural history itch that needed to be scratched and found out about the Riverfly on the Esk group. We started from relatively modest beginnings, with three sites conveniently within walking distance of my house (so close in fact that during the recent cold snap we took our sample into my kitchen for counting!). Now we cover the whole Esk catchment, which lies in Midlothian and East Lothian, just south of Edinburgh. Midlothian has one of the fastest growing populations in Scotland, which puts pressure on many resources, not least sewerage and our rivers. I’m glad that we can warn of problems and get the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) involved when necessary.      

“Apart from the social side of the work, I particularly enjoy making a contribution to my immediate local community. I find one of the most fulfilling parts of what we do is speaking to passers-by, spreading the word and hoping that, as I was all those years ago, today’s children might be inspired to find out about nature, understand some more about the environment and get the same joy from the natural world that I have had all my life.”

Extended Riverfly

In 2022, we ran a week of ‘train the trainer’ courses at the Natural History Museum in London, where RP accredited tutors could learn about the Extended programme and gain the skills needed to deliver this to volunteers. We would like to do this again. What we need is for tutors to let us know if you are interested in upskilling and whether a course in London or here at the FBA (on the shores of Windermere) would be preferable. Drop us a line at info@riverflies.org and we can start making plans.

Volunteers, if you are interested in Urban or Extended, please speak to your coordinator — we can then put coordinators in touch with the nearest tutor.

Survey

During September and October 2023, we carried out a survey of our volunteer network, reaching out to approximately 700 volunteers and 70 hub/group leaders and tutors. The FBA were able to secure funding from EFF for a three-year development period for the Riverfly Partnership, so naturally we wanted to ask for feedback and suggestions from the volunteers so that we can move forward in a way that meets those needs and better serves you. Through the survey we hoped to capture valuable insight into what was going well and where improvements could be made. We received responses from 463 volunteers and 30 hub/group leaders. To read more about the survey, head to our website: www.riverflies.org/survey-results

Thank you so much to all that took part and congratulations to Biff Whipster from Kent and the Our Stour group who was the lucky prize draw winner, taking home £50 and a couple of Riverfly books from the FBA!

FBA Voice

The Riverfly Partnership is hosted by the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA). To keep up with the FBA’s work beyond Riverfly, visit the FBA Voice page here, where you can see the latest updates and sign up to the monthly newsletter.

Lake Invertebrates Citizen Science Survey

A message from Rachel at the FBA:

“The Freshwater Biological Association is developing a new project looking at lakes. We want to sample the invertebrates found within lakes and we’ll need citizen scientists to help us do this. We’re currently in our development phase, but would love to hear your thoughts on volunteering! You can help by filling out this short, 2-minute, survey here.”

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