The Derwent Catchment Project undertake land care work in the Derwent catchment. This Sunday, 8 April, from 9am until 2pm they are running a free training day in how to identify water bugs. Come to Tynwald Park New Norfolk. (You don’t have to stay for the whole session).

They will be teaching a nationally standardised way of identifying water bugs.  There is no microscope required! Only simple equipment and a phone app or key. The Freshwater Ecologist who helped develop the system will be on hand.

Water bugs are sensitive to changes in water quality so they can help with learning about waterway health.

There are three levels of bug-blitzing that you can choose to do;

1. EASY- A Mayfly Muster – which might take about 20 minutes
2. QUICK - Bug Detective – look for the obvious water bugs at your site, takes about 1-2 hours
3. DETAILED – ALT Survey - Agreed live taxonomy survey, takes a few hours

The data gathered at the event will be recorded on a national database. All your hard work will not be for nothing.

You could go on to participate in the National WaterbugBlitz in spring in a location of your choice or help out again on the Lachlan River.

If you can’t make it to the training day consider going to the Information night at New Norfolk Library on Saturday the 7^th of April at 7.30pm.

For more information, have a look at the event flyer and the National Waterbug Blitz flyer.