Essex Rivers Hub

The Chelmer and Blackwater Catchment Partnership’s December 2019 newsletter is now available to download here.

The newsletter includes updates on water quality, plans for a new Chelmer and Blackwater catchment website, the Environment Agency’s Challenges and Choices Consultation and upcoming events. Read more...

Essex Wildlife Trust will be running a wildlife recording course at its headquarters on Thursday 26^th March 2020.

Run by Dr Lorna Shaw the course offers a general introduction to the importance of recording and the use of species records in conservation, including information needed to record species, submitting records and how those records are used. Read more...

Essex Wildlife Trust will be running a talk on marine species in Essex at Thurrock Thameside Nature Park on Saturday 25^th January 2020.

Rachel Langley, Essex Wildlife Trust’s Living Seas Coordinator, will be introducing the Essex coast and some of the species that call it home, as part of Poly the Plastic Seal’s tour around Essex in 2020. Read more...

The Environment Agency has published a summary of their response to the drought planning guidance consultation which took place in 2019.

The consultation which ran from 9th September to 18th October sought views on changes to the water company drought plan guidelines, which are updated every five years. Read more...

Essex Wildlife Trust will be running a free training session for volunteers at their head office in Great Wigborough as part of a pilot eDNA project. 

Running in conjunction with Salford University, the innovative project aims to survey mammal species by taking water samples from rivers using eDNA, the DNA fingerprint left by animals in contact with still or running water. This technique has been tested in a small trial in Assynt, Scotland earlier in the year but this will be the first attempt at catchment scale field trials. Read more...

Essex Wildlife Trust are looking for volunteers to help with the 2019-2020 annual Essex Otter survey.

The survey which runs from October 2019 to June 2020 will mark the 25th Anniversary of the annual county survey, which began in 1996 as a research project by the University of Essex before being incorporated into Riversearch in 2007. Read more...