Norma Aumen waded into the cool, shallow tributary Wednesday evening in Longmont and began to slowly tread back and forth across the Left Hand Creek as she drug a net along the bottom.
After collecting the small, aquatic bugs, Aumen worked with other volunteers waiting along the Left Hand Creek, who were eager to examine the diverse aquatic macroinvertebrates living in the local waterways.
About 20 volunteers attended a program Wednesday where they assisted nonprofit Can’d Aid, Trout Unlimited, Longmont and Left Hand Watershed Center with collecting aquatic macroinvertebrate samples from the St. Vrain Creek, the Left Hand Creek and the Spring Gulch to see whether diverse species are living in the waterways, which gives researchers insight into the health of the river system in the area.
Barb Sheedlo, president of the St. Vrain Anglers Chapter, which is a part of the national nonprofit Trout Unlimited, said this is the third year the organization has initiated the program.
She said the organization enjoys working with Can’d Aid, which helps recruit volunteers — such as Aumen — to collect samples and also learn about the quality of the river system.
“We are trying to engage more volunteers all of the time,” Sheedlo said. “We want folks that want to do citizen science work. It is really important because it is just a snapshot, and it’s good to look at whether the water is improving or declining.”
Some of the aquatic macroinvertebrates sampled by volunteers on Wednesday included mayflies and caddisflies that trout eat. Those bugs find their homes at the bottom of rivers, said Barba Luneau, a volunteer with the St. Vrain Anglers Chapter and a northeast Colorado regional vice president with Trout Unlimited. If something happens to a river — it happens to the insects and by default, the fish that eat them.
After the a semi-tanker rolled over last year and spilled gasoline into the North St. Vrain Creek, scientists continued to study the macroinvertebrates in the waterway to see how the ecosystem in the area was regenerating, Luneau said.
“The thing about macroinvertebrates is they’re always there and so it’s another line of evidence that’s used to monitor water quality and understand based on the populations how the river might be changing in a relative sense,” she said.
Down along the Left Hand Creek, Bryce Larson, of Firestone, stood and watched volunteers separate and document specific information about the macroinvertebrates they collected Wednesday.
Larson, 23, said she studied geography and environmental studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and completed her senior thesis with Trout Unlimited’s geographic information system. She said she’s been volunteering with the local chapter for about a year.
“It’s really cool because nature is full of all of these patterns whether or not you’ve noticed them and being able to do this (project) is a way to track all of that, which I think is really fun,” she said.
