Get Involved

Volunteering Opportunities

There are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved in helping to look after the River Sid. For example:

  • You can take part in monthly water quality monitoring of the river and its tributaries. 
  • Join in with monthly riverfly monitoring of small river invertebrates, for example mayfly and freshwater shrimp. Your results from both of these will be fed into the Westcountry Rivers Trust’s database.
  • Tight on time? River Watcher is a simple toolkit to encourage engagement with the river in a location of your choice and in a manner that interests you most. 

Register your interest using the form at the bottom of this page.

Water Quality Testing

Our volunteers are registered with the Westcountry Rivers Trust Citizen Science Investigation (WRT CSI) and visit their monitoring site monthly. 

To understand our watercourses, we record features such as river channel width, water depth, rate of river flow, the character of the river bottom, potential sources of pollution, land use on the adjacent banks, presence of Invasive species such as Himalayan balsam and Japanese Knotweed, wild life present in and around the water e.g. wagtails, dippers, kingfishers, water measurers, fish and otters. We measure 4 parameters to indicate water quality, namely temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity and phosphate. 

Discover more about the science behind Water Quality Testing and what we test for on our project page:

Learn more about Water Quality Testing

Riverfly Monitoring

Riverfly monitoring samples the invertebrate life within the river. These are the nymphs and larvae that as adults leave the water as flies to breed, and include groups like mayflies, caddis flies and stoneflies. There are eight species groups that are monitored, (one of these is not a fly at all!) These species are susceptible to pollution and are good indicators of a river’s health.

Monitoring takes place once a month. The sample is taken by a 3 minute sweep of the river, kicking the river bed to dislodge the invertebrates, which flow down into the net. Having taken the sample from the river, the species are counted. Sometimes you might get hundreds of individuals, sometimes none. A score is allocated to each species group, 0 for none present, 1 for upto 10, 2 for u to 100, 3 for upto 1000 and 4 over 1000. An average score for our river is between 10 to 12, 5 is poor and 16 excellent.

Find out more about Riverfly Monitoring, the eight different species we look for, and more on our project page:

Learn more about Riverfly Monitoring

River Watcher

It’s easy to become a River Watcher. This is a self-led activity anyone can do either alone or with friends when out by the river. Adopt a small stretch of river and follow some of the suggestions below. Spending time in nature has been proven to increase wellbeing and we hope that by becoming a River Watcher, you will enjoy the benefits of the natural world, whilst being near the river. Here’s how to get started:

  • Register your interest – by emailing info@riversid.org  and be sure to let us know which stretch of river you’d like to keep watch over (this should be a manageable length up to 250m max, and easy for you to get to).
  • Record your findings – we’ve created this easy form for you to log any findings with us. These will be fed into a spreadsheet so we can use the data to compare changes over periods of time. Not sure what to record?  Check the ‘What to look for’ section below for a list of things to look out for.
  • Report anything exceptional – dead fish and pollution should be reported to the Environment Agency on 0800 080 706. If you’re concerned about something else then drop us an email  info@riversid.org
Record your River Watcher findings here

Tips for River Watching

Spend 5 – 15 minutes being still, breathing, listening, and watching. Imagine your thoughts flowing away downstream to help you clear your mind. Ask yourself some questions: 

  • What can I hear?
  • What can I smell?
  • Is the breeze warm or cool?
  • Is there any wildlife around?
  • What plants can I see?

It isn’t always easy to find the time to be in nature, so try to make it a priority, or fit it into your usual routine, perhaps on your walk to work or school, or on a lunch break for example.

Can you take a sketchbook, use the camera on your phone or write a poem? There are so many creative ways to be calm in nature and deepen your experience. Share your photos, drawings, poetry or other creations on our Facebook group.

What to look for

Let us know about any exceptional changes to your stretch of river. These are the kinds of things you can look out for:

  • Wildlife – any sightings are great to have, or if you usually see something but don’t anymore, we’d love to know.  
  • Plants – large areas of invasive, non-native plant species such as Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed (We are already aware of the areas south of Sidford). See below for help identifying both plants.
  • Pollution – fly tipping, dead fish, excessive algal growth engulfing other river plants.  We recommend reporting these directly to the Environment Agency on 0800 080 706. Be prepared to give date, time, location and offer to send them photos.
  • Other things –  anything you think it‘s worth noting e.g. new barriers in the river such as fallen trees, large areas of bank erosion, new areas of flooding.

Identifying non-native plants

Himalayan Balsam

Himalayan Balsam has tall, hallow, fleshy stems that can be brittle, with reddish tints. The leaves are a dark green with reddish midribs in a lance shape sometimes with serrated edges. The leaves can be arranged oppositely or in whorls of three. Sweet-scented, pink flowers are produced in late spring to early summer and are helmet-shape that turn to elongated green, explosive seed pods that scatter easily when disturbed.
 

Japanese Knotweed

Japanese Knotweed has shovel-shaped or heart-shaped bright green leaves with a point tip, displayed in a zig-zag pattern up the stem. In the autumn, leaes can turn golden with red speckles. Stems can look a bit like bamboo with green with reddish-purple speckles. In late summer clusters of small, creamy-white flowers appear. In winter, the dead, brown stems are easy to identify.

Other things to note

Things you may want to notice for yourself, which don’t necessarily need to be emailed to us:

  • Changes in flow patterns, the shape of the river or bank sides
  • Changes in size and shapes of stone banks
  • The slow recolonisation of stone banks with plants after heavy rain.
  • Wildlife in, on and around the river.
  • The herbaceous plants and trees which grow by the river.
  • Seasonal changes
IMPORTANT: Please do not enter the river and do not go near the river after heavy rainfall as it can be very dangerous.

Find out more

If you’d like to get involved in any of these activities, or have an idea on how you might like to volunteer, email info@riversid.org

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