Report Prepared by Sam, Isabel, Jonathan and Miguel, WildLink Expedition I 2005, with the assistance of twelve AP biology students from Kingsburg High School

Why is there a need for Biological Monitoring of Streams?

As our economy and population grow, so does pollution and waste in the river. Most of our water comes from ricers and streams, so any wildlife associates have come together to form a way to monitor the “health” of the water.

As WildLink participants, we had to wade into the river and take samples of bugs to see how good the quality of the water was. We measured the river, put yellow flags at certain measurements then we went out and scrubbed rocks. We did three different trials in three different spots within our perimeter.

What did we find?

Well, our group found lots of mayflies and many different larvae, egg sacs, caddisflies, and net-spinning caddisflies. These “bugs” indicated how good the water quality is. The type of bugs determine how good or bad the water is. When we were in Yosemite, there was a big storm so most of the bad water was washed away. After we collected our samples we went into a lab and sorted the “bugs” then compared them with a chart to see if the water was good or bad.

For statistical results of the survey, click here.

For more about the Classroom Biomonitoring Project, click here.