Dear Catchment Champions.
Can you believe that is it our February testing weekend already!? On Sunday 16th many of us will be heading out to sample.
❄️ As it is forecast to be so cold, please make sure that you not only wrap up warm but also remember to hold your N and P tubes in your hands during the full 3 and 5min development process period, as per the FWW Method Manual 🔗
“The reaction time is likely to be lengthened in cold conditions, in particular for the enzymatic phosphate method. We therefore suggest that if the outdoor temperature drops below 10’C that the tubes are kept in the hand during colour development to maintain a temperature above 10’C if possible.”
N&P Tubes
Please check the expiry dates on your N&P tubes, and use up ones in the batch expiring March 2025 ASAP. These tubes are sensitive to the expiry dates, and the environment they are stored. So to make sure all your hard earned data is accurate please do not use out of date tubes.
I have been supplying extra packets of N&P tubes during our recent meetings and I will be bringing a good supply to the event on March 15th (see details in attached newsletter). If you are unable to attend either event please let me know ASAP so that we can make arrangements to get you enough tubes to cover you until December 2025.
⚠️ Please order all kit and supplies needed for 2025 monitoring now while we have funding ⚠️
Please calculate how many sites you monitor and times by 9 (months) to find out how many tubes you will need. There are 5 tubes in each pack. Please allow for a few extra tubes as replacements in case of issues when monitoring.
Penultimate edition
Sadly this is the second from last edition of this News from the Riverbank newsletter.
As you may know, the Evenlode Catchment Partnership has been funded by Thames Water’s Smarter Water Catchment programme over the past 5 years, and last year we announced that we would not take any further funding from Thames Water. Currently we don’t have any secured funding, so Sam’s contract as the community engagement coordinator will come to an end at the end of March.
To make sure that we take full advantage of this, we will be attempting to recruit a few more citizen scientist to the Evenlode catchment before Sams departure. To do this we have organised a presentation evening in Enstone at 7pm on the 19th February, followed by a FWW training session on the 1st March at Heythrop Hotel.
All the information is published in this newsletter (attached).
However, we have a fantastic group of citizen scientists across the Evenlode, and the ECP are committed to continuing to support your monitoring. The Wild Oxfordshire/ECP FreshWater Watch group will continue, and we will be providing you with enough kits for the next 12 months (and expect to secure funding for future kits too!)
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