Stream Water Quality Monitoring

Getting set up

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Using Doodle Polling we determine a day and time at least four us an can volunteer for a few hours four times a year, winter, April, July and Oct.  

The Collecting

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In pairs, using a net, we disturb the stream bed and collect in our net whatever floats in.  We take 20 net collections and transfer what we find to a small tub. 

Searching and Separating

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Any small animal without a backbone that we find on the bottom (benthic macro invertebrate) we examine and identify it. We determine how many individuals of each type we find.  We stop when we reach 100.

What Excites Us

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There are three orders of insect larva that when present can indicate a healthy stream, these are mayflies (pictured), stoneflies and caddisflies.

What Else We See

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We of course find crayfish, and larval forms of dragonflies, damselfies, beetles, true flies and others.  We count and tally them all.

Results are Determined

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Currently the health status of streams in lower Montgomery County is not good as they are in the fair to poor range. Our mission then continues to be to improve the overall health of our streams.