Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. Your donation will help South East Rivers Trust to provide Citizen Scientists with equipment to monitor the condition of chalk streams regularly. Each test site needs £350 - £500 of kit, which helps SERT spot pollution quickly to minimise the damage that would otherwise be done.

Chalk streams are globally rare, spring-fed rivers that derive most of their flow from underground chalk aquifers. Their alkalinity, minerality and cool, stable and gentle flows support a rich ecology and are incredibly biodiverse. Officially, there are just 200 chalk streams in the world – and 160 of these are in the UK. Our chalk streams are the equivalent of rainforests, yet Natural England has acknowledged that many small, headwater chalk streams have not been mapped, leaving them very vulnerable to high levels of pollution.

In May 2022, Natural England called for stakeholder evidence to update its Authoritative "Chalk River" dataset. The South East Rivers Trust responded, surveying and providing NE with mapping data for >80 new chalk streams across its region. Over 3 years later, Natural England still has not secured the funding needed to publish these revisions, so they can't be prioritised for the level of monitoring that comes with "Priority Habitat" designation. To prevent precious habitats from deteriorating, South East Rivers Trust is equipping Citizen Scientists to start this monitoring instead.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the South East Rivers Trust. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Natural England's 2022 call is here https://priorityhabitats.org/wp-content/uploads/Guidance-to-stakeholders-on-proposing-local-refinements-to-the-national-BAP-map-of-chalk-rivers-final.pdf

1st April 2022 is the last revision date for the data used in NE's Authoritative map https://naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/Defra::chalk-rivers-england/explore?location=51.365243%2C-0.470924%2C10.12

For details about the SERT's chalk stream mapping project, visit https://www.southeastriverstrust.org/help-us-identify-all-south-east-chalk-streams .

For more information about chalk streams, visit the Chalk Streams Hub via the CaBA website https://catchmentbasedapproach.org/hubs/ .