During December, RMCVolunteers continued with the weekly tasks of river fly and water quality monitoring at various sites along the river. In addition, vegetation was cleared at Meon Springs, members visited the beaver enclosure at Meonside Farm, had fun at the HIWWT festive bonfire, attended a meeting of voluntary groups at SDNPA headquarters, participated in the winter bird survey at …

In addition to our inriver tasks of river fly and water quality monitoring, in November we shared two tasks at Bere Copse with Sobernewts on behalf of HIWWT, coppicing, making binders, stakes and faggots.   

We are proud to announce that RMCV are the winners of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust  “Collective Action for Nature” Award. It’s a great testament to the hard work of all our volunteers”.  

We have found it necessary to return to some of the sites that we cleared of Himalayan Balsam earlier in the season to remove those late germinating plants that are now well grown. 

We have been asked by the South Downs National Park Authority to survey a new site for the Riverfly Monitoring Partnership, which is just south of Droxford.  We now survey four different sites each month, although one of them is dry at the moment.  We hope that the recent rains will encourage that upper reach of the Meon to start …

The new display board at our stand at the Warnford Fete was put to good use to demonstrate what lives in and on the River Meon to locals and visitors alike. There was an excellent turn out of volunteers to engage the public.    

RMCV members tackled invasive monkey flower in the river at Droxford, removing several large bags full to be disposed of carefully. 

June is also the month for maximum effort by our volunteers to remove invasive non-native plants such as Himalayan Balsam and monkey flower, before they can set seed and spread further. There was a very good turn out of volunteers to remove these plants from Meonstoke and Warnford Park.    

June saw the start of the local village fetes and fairs for 2025. The RMCV stand at Soberton fete was well supported by both willing volunteers and interested members of the public. Here we demonstrated what lives in the River Meon and what we are doing to protect and enhance its habitats.

May saw the start of our surveys for the presence of Invasive Non-Native Species (plants). We check along the River Meon for the early growth of any invasive species, notably Himalayan Balsam and Monkey Flower, in order to note which sites our teams will be asked to work on during the next months in our battle to remove these invasive …