Here's an interesting volunteering opportunity

Volunteers wanted for pioneer Chilterns headwater Study - 'Water in a Dry Landscape'

If you are interested in the springs and streams of the Chilterns and can commit to helping with quarterly water-quality surveys, the Chilterns Conservation Board (CCB) would like to hear from you.

The CCB has been awarded Heritage Lottery Funding for a major series of projects, including ‘Water in a Dry Landscape’ (WDL). In recent years, a lot of attention has been given to the chalk streams of the dip slope – rivers such as the Chess and the Misbourne – but the springs, headwaters and streams draining the scarp slope have been largely overlooked and under-appreciated. WDL, with your help, will change that.

Volunteers, are needed to work in small teams carrying out water quality surveys at up to 8 sites four times over the course of a year. Equipment and training will be provided. The data arising will be used to identify the best aquatic sites on the scarp. These will then be surveyed by specialists for their flora and fauna. Your survey results will also help to identify locations for practical works to improve biodiversity and water quality.

So, if you would like to be part of this ground-breaking study discovering the hidden value of the Chilterns’ springs and streams, please get in touch with Mike Furness, who is co-ordinating the project on behalf of CCB (mfurness@chilternsaonb.org, 07422 501619).

The survey period is expected to run from August 2019 to June 2020. Training is planned for 20th July (morning) at Wendover and 25th July (evening) in Princes Risborough. In total, more than forty sites will be studied by five teams of volunteer surveyors, who will be using the equipment provided to assess a range of parameters on site, reporting the data back to Mike for collation and analysis.

No special skills are needed as full training will be given, but you will need to be able to get to some remote locations, sometimes involving a bit of a walk, and CCB would like you to commit, as far as is possible, to all four survey rounds.

If this sounds like you, please contact Mike on mfurness@chilternsaonb.org or call him on 07422 501619.