Small Minnow Mayfly (photo by Bob Henricks)
Members of the LFWA Stream team were out in force April 8 for the spring monitoring of the Little Falls Branch. The exciting news is that a few minnow mayflies were spotted after a several seasons of absence. A large water main break in Westbard seems to have wiped out their population in Fall 2022, but we found four this spring. Hopefully, we’ll find even more in the summer. (Their numbers are usually in the in the dozens.)
Stream rated poor
Other findings from the spring monitoring revealed that the stream remains in poor health with a BIBI score of 1.9. We also found Planaria (Dugesidae), Sowbugs, Midges, Black fly larvae, Crane fly (tipula), and Common netspinner cadisflies. All these macroinvertebrate organisms live in the substrate of the creek - either on the rocks, in the leaf packs or in the creek bed. The organisms are grouped by their sensitivity to pollution with the most tolerant bugs getting the lowest scores. The variety and number of organisms found are added up to give us a score of for the biological health of the creek - BIBI score.
Learn about our program and results HERE.
thank you
Our stream monitoring is done quarterly by a team of trained citizen scientists lead by Frank Sanford. The project is in done in partnership with Nature Forward (nee Audubon Naturalist Society). Woody Stanley crunches the numbers for us. Thank you to everyone for your stewardship. Learn how you can join our team HERE.
