Friends of the Cheat will host a Save our
Streams training event on Friday, July 2nd starting at 10:00am at the Cheat
River Festival Site in Albright. West Virginia Save our Streams Coordinator Tim
Craddock will lead a hands-on workshop teaching techniques used to complete a
stream bio-assessment. The bio-assessment consists of three basic elements:
water quality analysis, physical characterizations, and an assessment of the
benthic macroinvertebrate community.
Benthic macroinvertebrates are the
small, but visible, invertebrates that live on the bottom of streams. A majority
of the day will be spent collecting and identifying benthic macroinvertebrates
or ¨ macros¨. Macros provide food for fish and other important freshwater
dwellers. The quantity and types of macros found help determine the health of a
stream. Two very different streams will be examined during the training: a
stream polluted with acid mine drainage (AMD), Muddy Creek at its mouth, and a
healthy stream, the Muddy Creek headwaters.
Anyone interested in
participating should RSVP to Andrew Miller at Friends of the Cheat by phone at
329-3621 or via e-mail at
amiller@cheat.org