ENVIRONMENTALISTS waded into a stretch of the River Severn in a search for waterweed which has largely “gone”. Wyre Forest Study Group members went to where Dowles Brook joins the river close to the disused and derelict branch line railway bridge. They were following up an analysis of on-line Environment Agency data that records the plants found in the stretch between 2004 and 2022.
Nine surveys were done by the EA between 2013 and 2022 which just overlaps with the time when people began to notice the waterweed had gone. Roger Meade, a long-time wetland ecologist, co-ordinator of Wyre Forest Friends of the Earth Group and contributor to CARP (Community Action against River Pollution), said: “It’s an indicator of the health of the river. We can measure pollutants but the ability of these plants to survive is the ultimate test.
“They provide hiding places for smaller creatures, such as young fish like barbel, and it is where they can spawn. The waterweed is essential to the food-webs but now they are gone. “They are also very beautiful, waving in the current and brightening the summer.
“We are all the poorer for their loss. “Groups such as Friends of the Earth and CARP will continue to probe into the state of the river and what is causing it to decline. We hope to see you all on September 22 for the celebration of World Rivers Day to be held at Bewdley Rowing Club.
Join us and let us know you care too.” Eight people from the group walked the shallows in a 100-metre length of river south of the old railway bridge and used a dinghy to reach where it was too deep to wade. The highlight of the day was seeing a pair of dippers, birds that feed around mossy rocks on the riverbed, revealing there are still enough small water creatures for them to eat.
Although there were several different types of algae, such as red Hildenbrandia encrusting many of the stones, the group said there were no true waterweeds apart from a small amount of common duckweed close to the bridge piers and a strand of amphibious bistort by the west bank. According to the EA survey reports, this has not been such a good location for waterweeds as some other parts of the river further north and south but water crowfoot was recorded there from 2013 to 2021. The group said many people remember when water crowfoot, perhaps the most visible of the waterweeds, was an obvious feature of summertime on the river.
It has white buttercup-like flowers and would be difficult to miss but few of the group took photographs of it when they had the chance. Rosemary Winnall, who has canoed on the river over many years, photographed water crowfoot in the river near Shrewsbury in 2017 with another taken at the same place this month. She said: “The disappearance of so much waterweed along the river is both a mystery and worrying for wildlife.
Our Wyre Forest Study Group keeps on recording plant and animal species so we can identify trends such as this. “We are glad to have been able to support CARP by carrying out this survey.”.
