Four members of East Meon Nature have been trained by the Riverfly Partnership https://www.riverflies.org to carry out surveys of the River Meon to look for specific river flies that indicate the health of the river.
Five monitoring points have been identified on the River Meon, in and downstream of the main village. The main monitoring points are No. 3, 4 & 5, where the access is good and the river bottom is suitable for river flies. Two of the monitoring points are upstream of the Sewage Works, and a recent one has been established downstream of the Sewage Works for comparison purposes.
Full details of the monitoring technique and pictures of the river flies can be seen on the Riverfly Partnership website https://www.riverflies.org.
The picture below shows some of the most curious river flies, these are cased caddis. They make their own protected case using small stones from the river!
