Bugs in the Water! Citizen Science Opportunity

The Lakes Environmental Center and the Portland Water District are teaming up with Maine Audubon and the Department of Environmental Protection to recruit community scientists who can help survey large aquatic insects (macroinvertebrates) in streams in the Sebago Lake area to help evaluate stream health. All you need to do is attend two on-line training sessions on how to find and identify approximately 40 “Least and Most Wanted” aquatic insects that are indicators of stream health and then visit 1-3 streams between August and October. During your survey you will search for the Least and Most Wanted macroinvertebrates, fill out a data form, and send it in to Maine Audubon. We will provide training, equipment, maps of the survey streams, data forms, and instructions. We recommend you conduct your surveys in pairs for safety reasons, and even in this pandemic time, that should be safe to do.

Live webinar trainings will be offered Wednesday, July 29 and Thursday, July 30 from 7-8:30 pm.  These webinars will be recorded so you can also watch them at another time if that’s more convenient.

As a follow-up to the webinars, an optional in-person outdoor training will be held on Saturday, August 1 at the Lakes Environmental Association’s Maine Lake Science Center in Bridgton between 9:30 am-3:30 pm. You can sign up to come practice identifying live insects in trays during 1.5-hr. time slots between 9:30 am-3:30 pm with a small number of other volunteers.

Please email or call Hannah Young at conserve@maineaudubon.org or 207-781-2330 x219 for more information or to register for any of these trainings. Alternatively, you can check their website at maineaudubon.org/events for a list of events and how to register.