Water has been a major topic of interest for MCA, not only because we had chosen it a year ago as the linked theme for both Wild Week and HuG, but also more importantly because of the surfeit we had at the start of this year’s spring and summer season and the subsequent drought we had for most of July and August.
For some time now, a few of our members have participated in the Great UK WaterBlitz, a citizen science project run by Earthwatch Europe to test bodies of freshwater for excess chemicals, such as phosphates and nitrates, along with pH. This is run twice a year in April and September and provides a good overview of water quality across the country. It’s proven so popular, registrations to get a testing kit for this September are now fully booked. However, anyone interested can find out past results on the project’s website and also register an interest in future testing opportunities. We will report our September results in the next newsletter. Please let us know if you’re thinking of getting involved.
A more challenging but potentially more interesting and useful approach is Riverfly monitoring. These invertebrates, sometimes described as the ‘canaries of our rivers’, spend most of their life cycles in a river, stream, pond or lake and as such act as valuable indicator species for the quality of those water bodies. The main groups are mayflies, stoneflies and caddis flies. There is now a Riverfly Monitoring Initiative set up by the Riverfly Partnership, which trains and supports citizen scientists to identify these flies and help to monitor them. This involves monthly sampling and reporting sessions. There are a few participating groups in and around the Moorlands, one of which is part of ManifoldCAN, whose open day at Upper Hulme some of us visited this August. It was great to see the flies up close in their sorting trays.
A great opportunity to find out more about water locally and get hands-on experience will be the Moorlands Water Day at Moorlands House in Leek. MCA will be having a stall and we hope to see you there.