Get to know our watercourses with…
Kirrie Rifflers
What are Kirrie Rifflers?
Part of the Riverfly Partnership, a network of organisations, anglers, conservationists, entomologists, scientists, water course managers and relevant authorities, we carry out regular surveys of our local waterways to help monitor the health of our rivers. We do this by kick sampling the same areas at regular intervals and record the selected species found. Species vary in their tolerance to pollution and are given a score on a sliding scale, we add up the scores to give a water body total then this is compared against a standard to see how stressed the river body is.
We received theoretical and practical training from Buglife in how to undertake the surveys and are now an accredited Riverfly group – the Kirrie Rifflers.
Why do this?
River flies, along with other freshwater invertebrates, are at the heart of the freshwater ecosystem and are a vital link in the aquatic food chain. Their common characteristics of limited mobility, relatively long-life cycle, presence in the river throughout the year and specific tolerances to changes in environmental conditions make them good indicators of water quality and useful indicators of change in the river such as pollution, siltation and low flows. The aquatic food chain also includes Salmon and Brown trout and Dippers.
Our regular monitoring of our local rivers helps to detect and then report serious pollution incidents and also helps create long term biological data sets.
Interested in Getting Involved?
If you’d like to be part of the Kirrie Rifflers volunteer group, complete a Volunteer Application Form and one of our team will be in touch.
Get in Touch
Together we can make good choices and live better, join Sustainable Kirriemuir!
If you would like to know more about what we are doing please get in touch. We are always looking for new members to join our organisation. If you have particular knowledge around climate change issues, or growing, making and mending skills you’d like to share, or just want to know more, we want to hear from you. Everyone is welcome, together we can make a difference.