Volunteers sought to monitor three W. Oakland rivers

A trio of area river watershed advocacy groups seek volunteers to monitor their respective rivers for insects and other water quality indicators.

The Friends of the Rouge (FOTR) group is looking for volunteers for its fall Bug Hunt on Saturday, Oct. 15.

The event allows volunteers to see a wide variety of aquatic insects, crayfish, snails, and clams that make up the bottom of the Rouge River food supply and support the fish and turtles living in the river.

The presence or absence of these aquatic invertebrates reflects the quality of both the water and habitat of the river.

The FOTR uses all the data collected to track the changes in river quality over time.

The event begins at 9 a.m. at the VisTaTech Center at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. Volunteers will be divided into teams of four to eight people and will travel to two sites to search for aquatic invertebrates.

Volunteers are asked to pre-register for the event before Saturday, Oct. 1 at www.therouge.org. Children are also welcome to participate as long as they are accompanied by an adult.

The Huron River Watershed Council is also looking for volunteers for its River Roundup on Saturday, Oct. 8.

Participants will be collecting a sample of bugs and other creatures that live in the Huron River and connected streams in order to determine the health of the river and creeks.

Trained volunteer collectors will be taking volunteers to two stream sites where they will search through stones, leaves, and sediment for benthic marcroinvertebrates.

Children are able to participate provided they come with an adult.

Everybody is asked to meet in Ann Arbor before car pooling to their monitoring locations in Livingston, Oakland, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties.

There will be two times to search for bugs. The first group will leave at 9 a.m. and search until 3:30 p.m., while the other group will start at 10:30 a.m. and finish at 5 p.m.

All volunteers need to register by Saturday, Oct. 1.

For more information and to register go to www.hrwc.org.

The Clinton River Watershed Council will also be monitoring the Clinton River and connecting streams this fall through its Adopt-A-Stream Program on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1-2, where teams visit their adopted sites and collect data, including records of the bugs that live in the streambed and surrounding vegetation to determine the health of the river.

If you are interested in becoming an Adopt-A-Stream volunteer call the CRWC at 248-601-0606 or email at contact@crwc.org.