Hidden water-world

A summer holiday Citizen Science event allowed the younger members of farming families to discover the health of local rivers and streams in Powys.
Led by ecologist Phil Ward (known as “the bugman”), the children were able to carry out kick-sampling on the Severn and its tributaries to uncover the hidden world of invertebrates. An amazing range of water-world inhabitants were found, ranging from the UK’s only indigenous white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) – a threatened species because of invasive much-larger predatory North American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), to caddisflies and water beetles.
Phil was also able to provide a showcase of local species in a talk before the event so the children had an idea of the range of insect and invertebrate life in mid Wales.
Chair of the People and Nature Working Together project group Rowan Jones says: “It was a fantastic event and the children – as well as us parents – learnt so much about the natural life in our streams and rivers.”