Adult Mayfly on the left, with skeletal remains on the right! Photo by Frank Sanford

Thanks to everyone for an efficient and productive Fall Monitoring yesterday. With a plethora of volunteers - there were 9 of us - we recorded 106 macros. Watching small minnow mayflies take flight might have been the highlight of the day or possibly finding one Narrow Winged Damsel Fly (thanks to Averill!). One sad note, Pauline, one of our most active volunteers is returning to France. She has promised to check out the macros there! "Mais oui"

Although the pedestrian traffic was less than average, we did solicit the help of two young future water monitors. Not only did they help sort, but they became the official number generators when it was time for the official count.

Official count:

Aquatic worm - 1
Planaria - 18
Sowbugs - 4
Midges - 6
Black fly - 46
Common Netspinner - 25
Small minnow mayfly - 5
Narrow winged damselfly - 1

Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity:

The B-IBI Score was 1.6 (Poor)

The Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) is a metrics that biologists use to assess the biological condition of stream sites and their surrounding habitat based on the diversity and relative abundance of the benthic (bottom dwelling) macroinvertebrates found at the site.

Learn more about our Macroinvertebrate monitoring program HERE.