In a few minutes, I'll be heading outside. It's Saturday morning, January 26th, and I'm off to wade in local tributaries. Yup. Why would I do that?
I'm a volunteer 'collector' for the Huron River Watershed Council, and one of their biggest events (in the Adopt-A-Stream) program is the Winter Stonefly Search. Stoneflies are aquatic invertebrates and live only in fairly clean water, so their presence is a rough indicator that a creek or river is generally 'healthy'.
Team are assembled, a leader and collector assigned (they've gone through specific training), and volunteers are added as 'pickers', to sift through the trays scooped out of the water.
Even though it's 21 degrees and snowing, we'll have a huge turnout of people looking for something to do. School-aged children with parents, environmentalists, fishermen, residents that live in the watershed all band together to make this great event possible.
For more information, see the link at http://www.hrwc.org/adopt/index.html
And don't worry about me getting cold in the water. I'll use my 5mm neoprene waders that will keep me very warm and dry.
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