FBA represents citizen science at Scottish Freshwater Group
The Scottish Freshwater Group hosted their 109th meeting in Stirling, Scotland, under the theme, "Citizen science in Scottish freshwaters" where the FBA joined other organisations in presenting its citizen science projects.
Over 60 attendees from various organisations (and interested individuals!) gathered together in a hybrid setting with the aim of sharing and inspiring one another through knowledge sharing around innovations in citizen science.
The day started with a range of short 10-minute talks, covering topics that ranged from algal bloom monitoring to well-being green prescribing. These highlighted the amazing projects in Scotland and beyond that are working to support nature by engaging the local communities and volunteers.
At lunch, the Freshwater Biological Association’s citizen science team joined over a dozen other organisations presenting posters and advocated for Riverfly, the Big Windermere Survey, and Discovering Priority Habitats.
The FBA’s citizen science team
Attendees came together to chat and share ideas around current project developments while enjoying their lunch break, and some great discussions were had about how methods and monitoring tools could be shared within the citizen science community.
In the afternoon session, FBA’s Riverfly Development Manager, Trine Bregstein, chaired the meeting and welcomed another group of presenters to share their ideas. The Riverfly Partnership was well represented across the board, with a volunteer Riverfly citizen scientist for the Esk, Richard Andrews, sharing his experiences of being part of the project and the benefits he had gained from engaging with his local freshwater invertebrates.
The day was a great success with many positive stories and ideas shared between those attending both online and in-person; our citizen science officers look forward to the next one!
Further reading
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