Help Monitor Pollution on Your Local Rivers

HELP MONITOR POLLUTION ON YOUR LOCAL RIVERS WITH THE MOOR TO SEA PROJECT.

A number of rivers in Cornwall are target catchments for pollution reduction. Monitoring river water quality is essential to reducing pollution, improving river water quality and improving bathing water quality. Pollution incidents can occur in our watercourses, spelling disaster for river ecology. Regular monitoring is the best way of identifying such incidents early and enabling a rapid response.

We monitor in other river catchments in Cornwall and are hoping to offer training further west later this year, however, wherever you live you will be welcome to attend these practical sessions.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is a member of the Riverfly Partnership, a network of organisations working together to protect water quality by monitoring the presence of certain indicator insect species. We are looking to build a team of community volunteers who carry out monthly samples as part of this work in Cornwall and we are very keen to hear from new volunteers.

The Angler's Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) was launched by the Riverfly Partnership in 2007 to enable anglers and other interested groups to actively monitor and protect their local rivers. It helps rivers to be monitored more widely and at greater frequency than is possible by the Environment Agency alone.

The ARMI monitoring technique involves pairs of volunteers taking 3-minute kick samples from the river bed each month, and recording the presence and abundance of eight pollution-sensitive invertebrate groups. The focus of the sampling is on 'riverflies' - mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. The macroinvertebrates are very sensitive to pollution and are therefore good indicators of water quality; changes in species abundance may be the first sign of a pollution problem. If invertebrate numbers drop below expected levels the Environment Agency are informed and will take action to investigate the suspected pollution incident. The Riverfly data held by each river group will also allow for long-term changes to be identified, and the regular presence of volunteers on the river will discourage potential polluters.

NO FORMAL SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

RIVERFLY TRAINING, LISKEARD

SUNDAY 14TH JANUARY 2024 10:30 - 16:00

Forest Holidays, Deerpark, Liskeard, Cornwall. PL14 4QY

WHAT THREE WORDS: tinkle.perch.someone

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