Waterbugs, waterbugs – new apps and workshops

Posted on 11 March, 2015 by Connecting Country

Connecting Country has been made aware of two new opportunities to learn more about the important native waterbugs of south-eastern Australia! As well as being interesting creatures in themselves, many freshwater invertebrates (waterbugs) are regularly used as indicators of waterway health.

Workshops

The North Central CMA is running two workshops, which are currently open to Waterwatch, Landcare and Indigenous volunteers wanting to learn new skills and potentially participate in environmental monitoring of waterway health. John Gooderham, ecologist and co-author of the Waterbug Book will share his knowledge of Waterbugs with participants and introduce them to the theory of waterbug monitoring, methods and how to identify Waterbugs. This workshops are a state Waterwatch accredited course called the Agreed Level Taxonomy (ALT) program, participants will receive a certificate and will be invited back to participate in future training courses.

The closing date for applications to attend is COB 12 March 2015 – to RSVP, visit the North Central CMA website or phone 03 5448 7124. One workshop is in Eddington (17-18 March) and the other in Strathallan, near Echuca (18-19 March). The attached flyer and map have further information (click here and click here).

The Waterbug App

For the increasing number of us using Smartphone technologies to assist with animal and plant identification, there is now also an Waterbug guide App for south-eastern Australia freshwater ecosystems. It is free and available for both iPhones and Android. For more details, here is a link to the website of the designers (click here).