Location: Snug, North West Bay Scout Group

Date: 19 June 2021

Time: 13:30 - 16:30

What to bring: We will go for a short walk outside (no bushwalking), so please bring appropriate warm/wet weather gear. Also, please download The Waterbug App onto a mobile device prior to this session and register (sign in  - top left of the home screen).  If you don’t have or don’t want to use your phone/tablet, there will be paper texts and data sheets available to use.

Citizen Science is an established way for people from the public to collect data and assist scientific research. This free workshop will teach you the basics of citizens science, and show that everyone in Tasmania can get involved.

The workshop will cover what kind of data you can collect as a citizen scientist, how to collect it, and how to process the data so that scientists and government bodies can use it.

We will talk about:

• how to look for and identify signs of animals,
• an introduction to identifying Tasmanian plants,
• how to use remote monitoring cameras, bird and bat recorders,
• how to use iNaturalist, the Natural Values Atlas and the Atlas of Living Australia,
• and how to connect with the existing community.

No matter whether you want to find out what animals and plants live in your backyard, help protecting your local reserve that you love, or simply want to contribute to better understanding Tassie’s unique wildlife – after this workshop, you will have everything you need to know to go out in the field and be a citizen scientist!

Focus on River Health

Macroinvertebrates, also known as waterbugs, are a good indicator for the health of rivers, creeks and other watercourses. In this session, John Gooderham will give participants the skills to identify aquatic macroinvertebrates to Order and Family Level. In the course of the workshop participants are taught how to use taxonomic keys to identify waterbugs. The participants are then taken through the array of common families of aquatic macroinvertebrates from the easiest to the hardest to identify. Participants are encouraged to bring their own material that they want to identify at the workshop.

We will also look at how to turn the list of waterbugs that you find at a site into an assessment of the ecological health of the river / wetland in which you found them. 

John Gooderham is a freshwater ecologist.  He works with The National Waterbug Blitz. He co-authored The Waterbug Book with Edward Tsyrlin (CSIRO 2002), The Waterbug App with Michael Sharman (a free ID app on iOS and Android!).  He is currently making short waterbug documentaries and helping people set up citizen science projects to monitor rivers and wetlands around Australia – using waterbugs.

This project received grant funding from the Australian Government’s Communities Environment Program with the support from MP Julie Collins, and from the JM Roberts Charitable Trust through the Tasmanian Landcare Fund.

Our members are strongly supported by Kingborough Council.

A COVID Risk Management Plan has been developed by Landcare Tasmania in line with the current COVID requirements. Please follow social distancing rules and stay at home if you are feeling unwell.

This event is part of our 2021 Outreach Events Program, leading up to the 2021 Tasmanian Community Landcare Conference in October.