It’s an overcast, warm and muggy day and the River Guardians volunteer group is down at the Millburn burn, a tiny stream running down from the hills above the Vale, through Renton, before entering the Leven just behind the Vale Academy.
At first glance, it might not seem special, but this small waterway is a habitat for a huge variety of creatures, big and small.
And this citizen science project, working in conjunction with Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust (LLFT), is designed to monitor the health and water quality of our local rivers and streams.
“It was the Friends of the River Leven Valley that started this,” Jay Malpas, biologist and project coordinator tells me.
“But because we are a fisheries trust we can get more funding for training and stuff, which is how we ended up coordinating it.”
Buglife
Today, the aim of the group is to take samples from the burn and count the small invertebrates, such as insects, they find.
They do this methodically, by gently kicking the streambed in 30 second increments at different points up its length and collecting the debris they disturb.
The LLFT collects data for Buglife, a conservation organisation which gathers data about invertebrate populations nationwide.
“It’s Buglife’s programme which we take volunteers out to complete,” Jay adds.
“To do the kick samples or to just be a volunteer, Buglife prefer people to be trained by them. They run theory sessions then a practical training session.”
Nick Beevers, lead biologist at the LLFT, stands by and supervises the sample collecting while he chats to me.
“There are communities of invertebrates that live in the silt and gravel, and substrate in general that are very sensitive to changes in the quality of the water – this can include many things, from chemical pollutants to oxygen.
“If the volunteers sample those macro invertebrates from the riverbed, they can tell us whether there are any problems with the water quality, with pollution, or oxygen crashes, things like that.”
After they get their samples from the burn, the group empties the contents of the net into large water-filled containers, before separating the specimens by species into smaller containers
to be counted and catalogued.
Diverse Backgrounds
While they work, I quiz the volunteers about their motives for being a part of this project.
Their backgrounds are diverse, but they all share a love and care for the environment around them.
“As a kid, I loved pond-dipping – it’s so easy to do, and you quickly see a great variety of strange, primeval-looking creatures.
“I hope we never detect a pollution incident – but if we do, I’ll get a kick out of helping to get it dealt with.” Zoe Weir, one of the River Guardian volunteers tells me.
At first, the nets don’t seem to contain much of interest, but as they strain out the muck and detritus and start picking out bugs, it quickly becomes apparent these samples contain an immense amount of life.
Some of the finds include Caddis Fly larvae, which create beautiful protective shells out of tiny river stones and pieces of sand, small shrimp-like crustaceans, and mayfly nymphs, which look to me almost like scorpions.
Then, the group becomes very excited.
They have found three tiny little fish, which they tell me are salmon fry, which they did not expect to find in this burn at all.
These young salmon will eventually leave the burn and venture out into the ocean, spending a year or two feeding before returning to this exact spot to lay their own eggs and continue the cycle.
Healthy Water
So, what’s the verdict on the health of this particular waterway?
“The Millburn burn doesn’t look like it should have a good invertebrate community, and it doesn’t look like there should be any salmon spawning but all the invertebrates we caught are really good indicators of high water quality.
“If we caught things like leeches and a lot of shrimps, then that’s indicative of really low water quality, but caddis flies and mayflies will only live in clean, well oxygenated water, so that’s a really good sign,” Jay explains.
To find out more and to get involved contact the LLFT through their Facebook or Instagram page, or by email at in**@ll**.uk
“The more the merrier,” Jay adds. “It’s important to be engaging people with their local environment.
“Even if we continue to just survey the one burn, it’s important people know that even in this one tiny uninspiring looking burn there’s a lot of really exciting things living.”
