Streams in UK's Lake District are becoming significantly less acidic. Ed Tipping of the Windermere-based Institute of Freshwater Ecology compared pH (a measure of acidity and alkalinity) levels in rain and river water samples collected in 1999 with those in 1998 and 1971-73. He found reduction in acidity in 1999 and evidence that invertebrate populations were starting to recover. "Our findings are probably the first to show acidification reversal in the UK, but they are not unique in Europe. Similar results have also been found in Norway,' he said ( The Edie-Net , January 28, 2000).