Join The Last Green Valley’s Water Quality Monitoring team and become a citizen scientist. Jean Pillo, Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator for TLGV, is hosting a training on Riffle Bioassessment Water Quality Monitoring.

Hundreds of water quality monitoring volunteers work throughout The Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor to gauge the health of streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. Their work has resulted in numerous direct actions to improve water quality in the region.

Riffle bioassessments are a way to document good water quality in small streams. Volunteers collect bugs that live part of their lifecycle underwater and act like the “canary in a coal mine,” indicating whether the stream meets fish habitat standards.

Pillo will conduct two trainings. Volunteers must attend one of the trainings to be part of the program. Training will be held 9 a.m. to noon, Sept. 13 at the USDA Service Center, 238 West Town St., Norwich, CT. and 9 a.m. to noon, Sept. 14 at the Connecticut Audubon Society Grassland Bird Conservation Center, 218 Day Rd., Pomfret Center, CT.

All training will be provided free of charge and no experience is necessary. After the initial training, volunteers will be paired up with experienced team leaders and assigned streams to assess. A typical monitoring event takes about 2 -3 hours. Volunteers are encouraged to monitor more than one stream during the September – November program period if they can.

Registration is required. To learn more, or to reserve your spot at the training, email Pillo at Jean.Pillo@Comcast.net