There’s no doubt that carrying out surveys and collecting data about your local river can be very rewarding and lots of fun, but the main reason why people get started on a volunteer monitoring programme is to help make their river cleaner and healthier.
Almost everything we do affects our rivers and streams in one way or another – from decisions about what chemicals you use in your garden, what you wash down the sink or flush down the loo, to what you eat for dinner. Rivers are woven into our towns and countryside and are heavily influenced by farming, wastewater treatment and disposal and transport – things that most of us use every day.
Collecting data about river condition – whether that’s water quality testing, invertebrate surveys or morphological assessments – doesn’t make the river healthier on its own, but it can open the door to positive engagement with the people and organisations (including ourselves!) that can make a difference.
There are a variety of ways that the data you collect can bring about a positive environmental impact; some can be really quick wins and very easy, whilst others might take more work and a longer-term approach. Perhaps someone stopped to ask what you were doing last time you were testing a local stream; now they know about the monitoring programme, that someone is looking after the local stream, and kingfishers can be seen there. Maybe your results form part of a larger data set that your local water company or Environment Agency team are using to prioritise their improvements or investigations.
The diagram below is from the free online e-book The Science of Citizen Science (Chapter 19, page 376); at over 500 pages, it is a long read! However, the section on creating a positive environmental impact is very useful. This work was also used in a shorter but equally relevant report written for the Environment Agency by Earthwatch Europe: The Role of Citizen Science in UK Freshwater Monitoring, which is also free to download.
The report identifies six key ‘impact pathways’ through which citizen science can lead to environmental change. On the CaSTCo project, we recognise these pathways from working with volunteer monitoring programmes and the resulting data. We have found this work very useful for helping to identify different ways we might use the same data to make a difference and by thinking in advance about which pathways we might use, how we might alter our data collection or share our data in a different way, or with different groups.
Behaviour change
This can be at an individual, community, company or governmental level. Once you know more about your river and what makes it less healthy, you might think differently about flushing wet wipes down the loo or pouring leftover paint down the drain. You might share your newfound knowledge with friends, neighbours and work colleagues. Maybe they will do things differently now too!
Political advocacy
Have you thought about contacting your MP or your local town, parish, district or county councillor to tell them why you are taking part in volunteer monitoring and maybe a bit about your findings? Some elected representatives will be keen to be seen taking an interest at election time – can you hold them to account if/when they are successful? Perhaps you are part of a larger group that could work together to exert more influence on decision-makers.
Social network championing
By talking about what you find and showing people what you are doing, perhaps via social media or word of mouth, you can widen your sphere of influence. Rivers and streams can be very inspiring, whether it’s a sparkling brook glinting in the sunshine or a raft of plastic bottles and litter that has accumulated behind a tree, sharing your experiences can help to get more people involved and so magnify your ability to make change happen – you never know who might see that Instagram or Facebook post.
Community action
By bringing others along with you, perhaps you can take on projects as a community that would be beyond you as an individual. Perhaps together, you can convince local landowners to make land available for tree planting. Or carry out a river clean up or Himalayan balsam ‘bash’. Perhaps you could talk to your local supermarket about installing a rain garden, water butts or sustainable urban drainage schemes (SUDS)?
Evidence for policy
It may take a long time and being part of a larger group (perhaps a regional or national programme), but we know that even large organisations and governments will listen to public opinion and can modify their practices and policies in the face of compelling data. This is another pathway that can operate at a range of different levels. Maybe influencing the national government seems a bit of a stretch (although your work may help give The Rivers Trust or other eNGOs more influence) – but does your local council, school or major employer/industry have an environmental policy?
Environmental management
Following on from influencing businesses or other institutions to implement more river-friendly policies, can your work help to influence people to change the way they manage their environmental footprint, land that they own or investments that they make? Sometimes, these impact pathways can take a while to bring about change – but some big wins and positive changes are possible when they do.