Volunteers have been donning wellies and waders to help assess the health of Dorset's rivers this summer.
The Extended Riverfly Scheme, run by Dorset Wildlife Turst was set up to survey the levels of pollution in rivers and detect a potential serious pollution event.
The project involves sampling, identifying and counting various invertebrates including mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and freshwater shrimps.
To help with the scheme, volunteers have been down at the rivers helping to monitor the conditions.
Some of the rivers surveyed contain different varieties of invertebrate, making them more complex.
Funding from the Vitacress Conservation Trust, the Freshwater Biological Association, the Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project is going towards developing a scheme of 33 invertebrates - the Extended Riverfly Scheme - which aims to help with the analysis of Dorset's rivers and streams.
Amanda Broom, Dorset Wildlife Trust rivers manager, said: "The Extended Riverfly Scheme is a great example of citizen science in action – the people who take part love to see what’s living in their rivers and often don’t have a conservation background but are learning detailed identification processes. There’s a huge value in what they’re doing and they’re really helping with conservation work in Dorset."
'Kick sampling' is used to conduct the survey, in which the volunteers gently kick the bottom of the river and wait for three minutes with a net.
They will identify the species caught in the net at that point, after which they will safely return them to the river.
The new Riverfly monitors received training for the task during May and June at Dorset Wildlife Trust’ Headquarters in Dorchester.
John David-Bowker, of the Freshwater Biological Association, and Mitch Perkins - two experts on the topic of freshwater invertebrates - helped with the training so that volunteers would be able to recognise the different species.
The Dorset Wildlife Trust is currently looking for more volunteers to help monitor Dorset's rivers as part of the Riverfly Monitoring scheme.
There are currently 40 monitors watching over 50 sites throughout Dorset.
Anyone interested in getting involved with volunteering should contact Angus Menzies on riverfly@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk
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