Riverfly Monitoring is our flagship citizen science project. Our volunteer monitors sample river bugs throughout Bradford and the Dales to assess the effects of pollution on life in the river.
Riverfly populations are one of the key indicators of long-term river health problems, as the insects living in the river fall quickly if pollution is present and take a long time to recover after a pollution event.
We have produced a series of documents to help you understand the state of the river and our thoughts on what needs doing to improve it. All of the documents below will open in a new tab on your device.
Our monitors work in pairs along the rivers and becks to sample an allocated site once a month during Spring and Summer.
To sample a river, volunteers kick the river bed for 3 minutes to release bugs from the gravel so they wash into a net. Hand-sized stones are then turned over for one minute to check for insects that cling to surfaces.
The monitors then sort and count the sample looking for 8 groups of bugs:
Burrowing Mayfly Stoneflies
Flat Bodied Stone Clingers Freshwater Shrimp
Olives Blue Winged Olives
Cased Caddisfly Caseless Caddisfly
The results are logged on the National Riverfly Monitoring Partnership website for approval by our local coordinator. Where problems are found, the results are sent to Environment Agency staff for investigation.
Aire Rivers Trust currently conducting Riverfly Monitoring in much of the Upper Aire, River Worth, and Middle Aire, as well as all the Becks that run into these stretches of river.
We have a large number of Riverfly Monitors acting in pairs from Gargrave to Apperley Bridge alongside a number of volunteers who work in bigger teams known as “Monitoring Hubs” around:
Silsden
Keighley & Worth Valley
Bingley & Baildon
For 2024 we are working to set up new monitoring hubs in:
Bradford
Skipton
This page will lead you to a limited list of resources provided to help our Riverfly Monitors.
