Come Count River Critters with FRWC April 30th to May 14th

By flintriver, on April 27th, 2015

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We are gearing up for Spring Water Quality Monitoring!

Some call them Benthic Macroinvertebrates, others call them River Critters, but one thing is certain: They tell us how healthy our rivers, lakes and streams are….and its a lot of fun catching and counting them.

OK…so that’s three things. See? We need your help!

Come out and be a citizen scientist for a day or two out in Monitoring 4 our Flint River Watershed. To volunteer for the Flint River Monitoring Program, please SIGN UP HERE or email Jaime Welch.

Want to learn more about Benthic Macroinvertebrates, FRWC’s Monitoring Program and what to expect that day? Learn more here: (Coming soon!)

Donna Calvin and Donn Hinds are doing Water Quality Monitoring at Richfield Park in Davison.

Benthic Macroinvertebrates

These animals that live in the stream have different levels of sensitivity to pollution. Some can live only in water with little or no pollution, but others can exist even with surprising levels of pollution. By collecting them and noting what types and how many of each type are living in the stream, we can get an idea of how healthy the river is. The more benthics we find that are sensitive, the higher the score, meaning the healthier the stream is. We track that information from season to season and year to year, and share it with both local and state agencies. Every Spring and Fall the FRWC monitors 34 different sites in and around Genesee and Lapeer county. Our monitoring process revolves around a specific 300 foot stretch at each stream so that we are consistent in monitoring the same area every time. As part of the process we spend 90 “wet net” minutes collecting at a site. This means that regardless of how many volunteers you have at a site, the total time spent collecting is 90 minutes. So if you have 2 volunteers collecting, you would each spend 45 minutes sampling all the available habitats within the 300 ft stretch.