My week
7 Jul 2025

Tony and I were braced this morning for some poor results on the regular Ebley riverfly check, given recent experiences. And, indeed, that expectation lived up to billing.

I took a sample first, and we didn’t need to analyse very long before we realised there was literally nothing. We managed to get a score of 2 with gammarus, and only found a single olive after that.

So with a score of 3/4, we breached the trigger for the site. So we took a second sample, and swapped roles with Tony in a slightly different part of the site.

This time, we managed to get small numbers of a wider range of species (including a stonefly which is very rare to see). So the second sample was no longer a breach and would not result in further action by the Environment Agency.

At lunchtime, I met with Victoria for a coffee. She has recently moved to Dursley and has experience working with a volunteer online news organisation. So I was able to get a lot of good tips that we can apply to the expansion of Discover Dursley.

In the afternoon, the last Monday Dursley Code Club of the school year in the library. A somewhat sad occasion because it would be the last session for four of them who will be older than the 13 limit next term. I’ve really enjoyed watching their journey closely in the last couple of years, and I am certain they will continue their digital creativity and curiosity under their own steam.

There were also three year 6 children who will be attending school in Stroud next term, and won’t be back in time to attend code club. Again, I’ve watched them develop and grow confident with coding in the last couple of years and hope they have the opportunity to continue in Stroud.

So there’ll be quite a few vacancies next year, which I should have no problem filling from the parents mailing list.

A mid morning appointment at the council chambers at Ebley where the students at the Star College were presented with their awards for their work along the canal over the past year. The Star College provides education for young people with disabilities, and they joined many of our Wednesday work parties with Stroud Valleys Project.

Tony showed a short film first that showcased all the work they had done, and it really was a huge range of learning and practical tasks. The students then came forward for their certificates and we finished off with some refreshments and mingling.

We then started our regular work party, pulling Himalayan balsam in areas around the mill.

We started along the tow path and moved across to the Queen Elizabeth park which had beeen cleared a couple of years ago.

There were isolated clumps, some quite large which we dispatched after an hour or so. We then headed the other way to Ebley Meadow where we did a lot of work last year. Thankfully it hasn’t returned in the huge numbers back then, but there was still pockets to clear along the bank.

My first seed harvest of the season with Glorious Grasslands was a long way down. At the very bottom of the Cotswolds in Freshford, quite a way below Bath.

This was an interesting project – the Young Wilders organisation has a community based meadows project where small landowners club together and share seed banks and grazing.

The field today was around a hectare, and has been hay cut and grazed for quite a while so it was pretty species rich.

It was an extraordinarily hot day. As usual with these locations, there was very little shade. And every time I got a seed load cleared and sieved, Tom would appear with the next one.

The seed from this project will go into the neighbouring field in September. In addition, there’s a further 5 hectares to spread in this area, so quite an important goal for this year.