July and August has seen RMCV volunteers demonstrating what lives in the river at a number of village shows in the Meon Valley as well as a lot of early mornings tackling invasive plants. The hot summer has meant that some plants have been setting seed earlier this year so the team has been busy pulling the plants before the …
Water voles are Britain’s fastest-declining mammal. Once widespread across the country’s rivers, streams and wetlands, they have declined due to habitat loss, pollution, agricultural pressures and predation by non-native American mink. National estimates now stand at between 58,000 and 186,000 individuals, making every stronghold for the species increasingly important. The survey, carried out by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife …
In addition to our regular river fly and water quality monitoring, RMCV “vole-nteers” were very busy each week surveying for water voles at various sites along the River Meon. May also saw the start of looking for invasive plant species such as Himalayan Balsam. RMCV assisted SDNPA to start pulling this highly invasive plant and to make some inroads into …
April saw the start of the busy water vole surveying season for RMCV. This year we have been tasked with completing 12-13 water vole survey transects along the River Meon, including 4 at Meon Springs. These surveys have to be completed between mid- April to mid-June.
During March RMCV worked with Meon Springs to re-wiggle the river by fixing berms made of faggots of cut and dried willow inside supporting posts. This helps to allow the redirected flow to keep the gravel clear of silt and allows silt to build up on the bankside, creating new habitats. The newly created pools were then planted out with …
RMCV were awarded the Mayor of Winchester’s Community Award for services to the people of Winchester in a ceremony held at the Guildhall in Winchester
We held our Annual General Meeting Agenda Thursday 26th March 2026 19:00 -20:30 in the Warnford Village Hall The meeting was well attended and very positive and informative.
January also saw the return of volunteers to Meon Springs as the river flow increased. We were able to restart river fly monitoring with some interesting finds and continued to help the landowners to let more light into the river by removing overhanging vegetation.
RMCV supported the peaceful protest mounted by the residents of Droxford, the Test and Itchen Association and Fish Legal, with around 150 people coming together to highlight the damage caused by 4×4 off-road vehicles driving down a 200m stretch of the River Meon, resulting in destruction of the precious chalk stream habitat. We were joined by our local MP, county and district councillors, …
Earlier in the month, we held a talk in Bishops Waltham to inform interested locals about what we, as RMCV, do and to encourage them to form a similar group to take action on the River Hamble headwaters.
