Volunteers sought to help monitor water quality

Outdoor enthusiasts looking for an opportunity to bug out in the next couple of weeks can do so while helping monitor river water quality with the Huron River Watershed Council or the Friends of the Rouge.

The Huron River Watershed Council is seeking volunteers for its annual River Roundup event on Saturday Oct. 6 at various locations throughout Livingston, Oakland, Wayne and Washtenaw counties.

Participants will help look for bugs and other creatures that live in streams, which helps tell researchers about the health of the river. Volunteers will meet in Ann Arbor before being divided into teams and carpooling to study sites where they will search through stones, leaves and sediment taken from the river bottom.

The watershed council will offer volunteers two times to choose from on Oct. 6, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Volunteers must register by Oct. 3 to be assigned to a group.

First time volunteers can fill out information forms at hrwc.org/volunteer/registration-for-first-time-volunteers and then register at hrwc.org/volunteer/roundup/register-for-the-roundup. For more information contact Jason Frenzel at jfrenzel@hrwc.org.

The Friends of the Rouge also is looking for volunteers for its annual Fall Bug Hunt on Saturday, Oct. 20.

Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at the Schoolcraft College’s VisTaTech Center, 18600 Haggerty Road, in Livonia, and split into teams of four to eight people to travel to two sites and look for living things to sample from the river.

Data from the hunt is sent to the state of Michigan and Rouge communities to screen for problems and assess restoration progress.

Interested volunteers must register by Oct. 5 by visiting www.therouge.org.