Just recently, a group called Friends of the Upper Wye was formed to monitor the pollution in the River Wye - after a summer of algal blooms turning the river green. The group is researching the factors that are leading to the pollution of the river, such as agricultural pollution, sewage, and the effects of climate change. With the help of Cardiff University, the Environment Agency and the Wye and Usk Foundation, the group is now designing a citizen science programme to monitor water quality from Plynlimon down to where the Wye meets the Lugg at Mordiford in Herefordshire.
They are looking for volunteers who live near the river, or a stream or brook that feeds into it, and would be prepared to monitor their local patch.
One of the local organisers is Richard Greatrex, who spoke to the Hereford Times, where I saw this story.
The group is also launching an Arts project called Codwch Yr Afon, or Lift the River, which is the brainchild of Friends of the Upper Wye member Eamon Bourke. The project has the aim of highlighting the cultural importance of the Wye, and investigating the role that the river plays in the life of local people.
FOUW are inviting local people to submit their own River Samples, in the form of memories, photos, poems, paintings, songs, or anything else artistic and creative.
Another thing the group are working on is to apply for designated bathing water status for the length of river at the Warren. This means that the water would be regularly tested, and the local council would display information about water quality and pollution.
The article in the Hereford Times ends with a few words from the Chair of FOUW, Dr Tom Tibbits, who talks about the importance of the River Wye for tourism, swimming, fishing, rowing, irrigation, drinking water and general enjoyment, with the hope that the natural beauty of the river can be preserved for generations to come.
The River Wye is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Friends of the Upper Wye have a website at www.fouw.org.uk.
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There's a programme about the River Wye on BBC1 at 8pm Thursday March 25th.
Sadly the BBC changed their schedules because of football on Friday, the current transmission date is:
07.30pm Wednesday 31st March BBC1 Wales
Secrets
Wales: Land of the Wild
An epic journey following Wales’s rivers from their birth in the mountains to the sea, discovering the hidden secrets of wildlife along the way as cutting-edge camera technology captures animals like never before.
Super slow-motion cameras film peregrine falcons on the hunt and reveal why their prey, the unsuspecting red grouse, are often able to evade the fastest predator on earth. Dragonflies’ amazing aerial acrobatics are slowed down 400 times their normal speed and red squirrels are captured as they leap through the trees.
In a city park, pigeons' hidden superpowers are laid
bare, and in an upland garden, a subtle hierarchy is at play as birds gather around a feeder. The latest underwater cameras take us below the waves off the Welsh coast as catsharks mate and lay their eggs, while in the headwaters of the River Wye a complex and surprising microworld is revealed.
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