River Ock, Saturday 5th August 2023

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 This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D

Well, the forecast was for rain, and that's what we got!

Eight hardy volunteers met by the bridge behind St Helen's Court and made our way, with two wheelbarrows full of tools to our usual base next to the woodchip path by the northern branch of the Ock. Our main task was to re woodchip the path using to woodchip left by the council contractors after felling some trees. We also needed to cut back nettles from the edge of the path, as it had become very narrow in some places. As usual, there was litter picking to be done, and a special new task was to test the water of the Ock for nitrates and phosphates. We are doing this for the freshwater branch of Earthwatch and will test the same spot at regular intervals.

We embarked on our various tasks. For the water testing, we scooped water out of the river with a bucket and drew it into a tube containing powder. We timed 3 minutes for the nitrate and 5 minutes for the phosphate, then compared the resulting colour to those on the chart.

Meanwhile, Lesley set off to litter pick and the others to make a start on shovelling and spreading woodchip.

Having finished the testing, we joined in with the other tasks .Sally set about scything the nettles and I went to help Lesley with the litter picking.

By break time, the rain had got even heavier, but we voted to carry on, as it was particularly important to do as much of the woodchip path as possible. We decided to concentrate on the part of the path that was particularly muddy. I went in search of more litter, and we ended up with one and a half bags of rubbish and one and a half of recycling. Of course, in Summer a lot of litter is hidden in the undergrowth.

We decided to finish a bit early as the rain showed no sign of letting up and made our soggy way back to the car park. 


Woodchip path in urgent need of renewal

Initial briefing

Water testing - washing out the bucket

The test tube

Adding river water

Testing for nitrates. Comparing the colour



Phosphate testing

Equipment and timer



Attractive berries

Raking woodchip

A barrowload of woodchip

Loading the barrow

Barbara with rake

Making progress

Unloading the barrow

A great improvement to the path


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