Thank you to the over 100 volunteers who joined HRWC’s annual Stonefly Search on Saturday for our first in-person monitoring event since February, 2020!
This year’s Stonefly Search was also HRWC’s first volunteer monitoring event hosted out of our new offices at 117 N. 1st Street in downtown Ann Arbor!
HRWC cannot do the work of monitoring and protecting our waterways without the amazing volunteers who dedicate their Saturdays to search for Stoneflies in the snow, and we so were excited to see many new and familiar faces join us for this historic event. Thank you!
A big move to a big new office!
HRWC moved to our new office in September 2022, and staff have been settling into a regular hybrid work schedule and enjoying easy access to walking, biking, and bus routes to and from the new building. Stonefly was a big test for our new space, a two-story building with an open floor plan, a lab and a spiral staircase featured prominently on the first floor. We were confident the event would be successful, but we were excited to see just how well the space accommodated one of our largest and most dynamic events.
Why we monitor bugs
Aquatic bugs, otherwise known as benthic macroinvertebrates, are important indicators of water quality as certain families and species are more sensitive to pollutants than others. HRWC monitors benthic macros across the watershed and tracks whether different types of bugs are becoming more or less abundant, which could indicate an improvement or a decline in water quality over time. Stoneflies are very sensitive to pollution, and HRWC relies on volunteers to help us track stonefly populations across the watershed when certain types of stoneflies are active in the winter.
Thank you!
HRWC would like to thank all of our tried and true volunteers who have stuck with us through COVID-times and supported us in the move to our new offices. We also want to say WELCOME to all of the new volunteers who turned out for Stonefly this year. We hope you to see you again soon!
Want to volunteer?
Visit HRWC.org/volunteer if you’re interested in participating in any of our volunteer monitoring activities.
Come to our open house!
If you’d like to stop by and check out the new space, HRWC is hosting an open house and our annual volunteer thank you event, River Givers, on Wednesday, March 8th. Learn more at HRWC.org/rivergivers
In addition to the satisfaction as a volunteer I receive by contributing to citizen science in the Watershed Council’s stream water quality programs, the joy and satisfaction of meeting so many interesting people on my team over the years cannot be over-estimated.…I thought everything went very smoothly in your new digs. Kudos to you (Jason), Paul and Kate! – John Gannon, long-time HRWC volunteer.