Guardians of our Rivers: Next Steps

What did this project do?

Monitoring riverflies such as mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies, provides vital, up-to-date information about how freshwater invertebrates are faring and the quality of river environments.

Guardians of our Rivers: Next Steps focused on connecting people from a diverse range of backgrounds with their local rivers and freshwater habitats, and the invertebrates that call these places home. The project specifically targeted underrepresented urban communities and facilitated groups that enabled the development of catchment-scale monitoring of water quality.

Watch one volunteer group in action.

Extended training and additional resources were provided to enhance the confidence and skills of volunteers, empowering community groups to become more actively involved in safeguarding the quality of local rivers and streams.

A network of new regional trainers were supported to become certified riverfly monitoring initiative trainers, ensuring the continuation of the riverfly monitoring initiative in Scotland beyond the funded period of this project.

This project will continue to feed into the The Riverfly Partnership – a network of organisations around the UK, working together to protect our rivers and riverflies.

Project achievements

The Project has supported communities across Scotland to get to know their local rivers better, and help to make a difference to protect and restore nature.

• 886 riverfly monitoring surveys completed.
• 486 volunteers trained.
• 186 new riverfly monitoring survey sites monitored across Scotland.
• 19 new riverfly monitoring groups formed – exceeding the target of 12.

A Memorandum of Understanding between Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Buglife, has formally embedded citizen science into Scotland’s approach to river and freshwater habitat monitoring and protection.

Read more about the impact of our work in the BBC article: Fly counters help to spot signs of river pollution.

How can I get involved?

If you are interested in being part of our network of over 60 Guardians of our Rivers groups across Scotland, contact us for more details on how to get involved at [email protected].

Are you already part of our GooR network?

Buglife has created a wide range of resources to support our network of certified river monitors across Scotland.

Below are are some handy PDF resources to get you started.

Should you need additional resources including generic risk assessments, field recording forms, Trigger Breach procedure flow charts, Trigger Breach forms, site registration forms and more, please contact us.

You can also learn more about riverflies and river monitoring, by catching up with Assistant Scotland Manager, Kerry Dodd, and her recorded talk with the Biological Recording Company.