The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) hosted a visit from Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to our Wallingford site on 16 May 2022.
The minister and departmental colleagues engaged with presentations by UKCEH researchers on subjects including sustainable land use, monitoring environmental land management schemes, nutrient pollution in rivers, land and net zero, biodiversity targets, flood forecasting, and nature-based solutions for flooding.
The delegation were shown an automated biodiversity monitoring station, and visited our laboratories to see the process for extracting DNA from honey samples, carried out as part of our National Honey Monitoring Scheme.
The visit took place at the start of Invasive Species Week and the Minister heard about efforts to control the spread of Asian hornets, including monitoring via the UKCEH-developed Asian Hornet Watch app.