The Big River Watch 22-24th September
The Tweed Foundation and Tweed Forum are joining forces to ask local residents to spend just 15 minutes of their time between 22 and 24 September to record observations of the Tweed or one of its tributaries, including the Teviot, Ettrick, Gala and Leader Waters, the Whiteadder and the River Till, in order to help the Big River Watch initiative gather information about the health of waterways across the UK and Ireland.
Participants will be asked to record observations of their local river on a brand-new, free-to- use Big River Watch app which will be launched later this month. Information about plants, wildlife, signs of pollution and observations on water colour and flow will be requested and there will be questions about participants’ own connection to their local river. The app will include identification guides for pollution and wildlife and will be available to download from 18 September.
The results will form a data set on river health covering the whole of the UK and Ireland, the likes of which has never been created before.
Jamie Stewart, Director, The Tweed Foundation, said; “The River Tweed is famed across the globe as one of the world’s great salmon rivers, but like many other waterways, it is facing challenges in many areas, not least from the effects of climate change. Our team of biologists is constantly monitoring the health of the river and alongside our Citizen Science projects such as Guardians of the Tweed, delivers information that enables us to work towards providing the conditions that will help our fish stocks survive and thrive. The Big River Watch will provide even more valuable information but we need lots of local people to participate so that there is enough data from the Tweed catchment to help inform our work.”
Tweed Forum CEO, Luke Comins said; “Joining forces with other river organisations across the country to collect this kind of data will put us all in a much stronger position when it comes to understanding the overall state of our rivers, directing improvements and delivering the policy changes required. We know that people across the Tweed catchment care immensely about the river and its tributaries so are encouraging as many of them as possible to spare 15 minutes between 22 and 24 September to download the free app and record their observations so we can become part of a broader picture of change and river improvement.”
The Big River Watch is open to all, with no experience or training in citizen science required. The survey has received 3,400 responses from across the UK and will remain open until the end of 2023. Please down load and complete the survey for the Tweed Catchment.