Even though the traditional survey season has officially finished, many of our survey programmes run throughout the year. Our monthly Bioscan project has had a busy first year, with volunteers plating up several thousand insects which are soon to be sent off for DNA analysis. This ongoing project is studying the genetic diversity of 1,000,000 flying insects from across the UK but on a local scale it provides us with information on what species we have on the Common and starts a long-term monitoring programme.
The autumn survey for Smart Rivers, an advanced citizen science project, is continuing on the Beverley Brook. Dedicated volunteers and staff have identified thousands of aquatic invertebrates to species level. This detailed monitoring allows us to assess changes in invertebrate diversity and abundance. As part of the project, water quality scorecards are produced, grading the impact of five common water quality stress types. Unfortunately, of the 61 sites across the UK in the Smart Rivers scheme, the Beverley Brook ranks among the three most stressed rivers… it’s hard to get much worse!
We have also begun monitoring E. coli levels in the Brook. The latest results, available here, make it clear that this isn’t water you’d want to accidentally swallow. In a short report, Rachel Walker highlights the further findings from a 1.25 km stretch of the Beverley Brook, where multiple polluting outfalls were identified.
Hedgehog Camera Trap Survey
Onto some more positive news, our annual camera trap survey for Hedgehogs, run in partnership with ZSL HogWatch, has found Hedgehogs on 7 out of 25 cameras across Barnes Common and Putney Lower Common, matching our results from 2023 and 2024. The current hotspot remains Mill Hill and the area around the cricket field on Barnes Common.
If you’d like to get involved, you can help by classifying images from the London surveys here.
Acid Grassland Restoration and Bee Bank
At the end of summer, we also completed an acid grassland scrape, funded by generous donations through our Big Give campaign earlier this year (see photo above). This involves removing the top layer of nutrient-rich soil to expose the sandy, low-nutrient layer beneath; creating the right conditions for Lowland Acid Grassland species to thrive. The spoil from the scrape has been used to build a bee bank, providing valuable nesting habitat for solitary bees and wasps.
For any Conservation questions or queries, do get in touch!
Published on: 19 November 2025