January 11, 2021
LFWA’s Stream Monitoring team went out Saturday, January 9 for their winter monitoring. The weather was beautiful; the results discouraging. The protocol is to just count the first 100 benthic macro-invertebrates organism found. Unfortunately, they were not even able to find half that number.
Frank Sanford, team leader, reports from the field:
Yesterday’s monitoring was very discouraging. We didn’t find the required 100 organisms, only about 40
Here are totals:
Aquatic worms - 3
Aquatic sow bugs - 7
Chironomidae (midges) - 3
Black fly larvae - 3
Crane fly larva- 1
Common net spinners - 16 (caddisfly larvae)
Damselflies larvae - 5
Unfortunately, our creek is rated poor. Using the protocol set by our partner organization, Audubon Naturalist Society, the team searches for benthic macro-invertebrates - the small critters that live on the bottom of the creek or under rocks. These organism are largely the larva form of flying insects you see around waterways. The diversity and number of organisms found help us determine the health of the creek. The organisms are rated by pollution sensitivity and then assigned a score based on the types found. The protocol also mandates that we find at least 100 organisms as the number of organisms is also an indicator of the state of the stream.
Macro-invertebrates from 2021 winter monitoring. From the left: Aquatic worm, caddisfly larvae and sow bug. Photo by Kevin Misener
Damsel Fly larva from 2021 winter monitoring. Photo by Kevin Misener