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A Year’s Work for Wilden Marsh Special Report – Dr Roger Meade’s Year-long Study of the Rivers Severn and Stour

For the past year, while some of us have enjoyed the River Stour and Wilden Marsh, one man has been busily collecting evidence.

Week after week for a year, wetland ecologist Dr Roger Meade collected water samples from the River Severn and the River Stour, measuring turbidity, recording water chemistry and documenting the condition of aquatic plants.

The result is a report that deserves to be widely read.

It compares the River Severn with the River Stour as they flow through our area, exploring why the rivers behave differently, why waterweed flourishes in one river but has largely disappeared from the other, and what a year’s worth of measurements can tell us about turbidity, nutrients and river health.

This isn’t a document full of opinions. It is built on a year’s worth of observations, measurements and careful analysis.

Dr Meade has kindly permitted me to share his report with everyone who follows the Wilden Marsh Diary, and I hope you’ll take the time to read it.

Whether you’re interested in wildlife, fishing, conservation, local planning or simply the future of Wilden Marsh and our rivers, I think you’ll find it fascinating.

Thank you, Roger, for giving so much of your valuable time and expertise to help us better understand this remarkable place.

Although written by a scientist, don’t be put off. Roger has written it in a clear and accessible style, and you don’t need a scientific background to enjoy it.

Some of the report’s key findings:

• A full year of weekly sampling compared the River Severn with the River Stour.

• The Severn generally carried higher and more persistent turbidity than the Stour during the survey.

• Water crowfoot and other aquatic plants remained widespread in the Stour but were absent from the Severn during the survey period.

• The report concludes that understanding these differences will require collaboration between organisations and further scientific investigation.

The full report is attached below. I hope you’ll take the time to read it.

If you find it as thought-provoking as I did, please consider sharing it so that Roger’s year’s work reaches the wider audience it deserves.

I’d also be interested to hear your thoughts once you’ve read it.

Severn Stour comparisons V4 17-6-26 Severn Stour comparisons V4 17-6-26

One response to “A Year’s Work for Wilden Marsh Special Report – Dr Roger Meade’s Year-long Study of the Rivers Severn and Stour”

  1. Rae Spencer Avatar
    Rae Spencer

    Very interesting read. I found a new quote for my Quote Hoard (“In the absence of planned surveillance, we are entirely dependent on serendipity…” [p. 28]). I’ve been brooding over a potential long-form work that looks at how we tell science stories, focusing mostly on “serendipitous discoveries” and “cautionary tales”, so I felt a little spurt of inspiration on finding that quote. I also found a wonderful new word: schmutzdecke (p. 28, again). I did come away with a curiosity-only question. On p. 30, the author mentions that the Stour has an “odour” like other urban rivers, and I’m curious about the character of the odour. As in, is the odour normal or abnormal. Should the odor also be present in the Severn, and it’s a problem that there is no odor? Or should the odor be absent in the Stour? (I expect the author is too busy to be bothered with such questions, but my curiosity was strong enough to warrant asking.) Thanks for sharing!

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