Article by: Jen Young, NGRREC/L&C Marketing and PR, jenryoung@lc.edu
EAST ALTON – Illinois RiverWatch will be premiering
their film “Biodiversity of Freshwater Mussels: Community Science in Action” along
with a short presentation highlighting community science during the next
National Great Rivers Research and Education Center’s Neighbor Nights event,
Jan. 17.
This month’s
event will be held in a hybrid format, giving participants the opportunity to
join virtually or in-person at the NGRREC field Station, located at 1
Confluence Way, East Alton, Illinois.
“The goal of
this film will be to demystify the overall process of scientific research,”
said RiverWatch Director and Stream Ecologist Danelle Haake. “We also want to
show that community science projects are for everyone and no experience in
science is required to participate.”
The Field
Station will open at 6 p.m. for in-person guests, with a tour starting at 6:15
p.m. The hybrid portion of the event will begin at 7 p.m., beginning with a
30-minute presentation from RiverWatch Technician and Volunteer Coordinator
Hannah Griffis.
“We hope this
film highlights the great work being done by the Upper Sangamon River
Conservancy (USRC),” Griffis said. “The film talks about the experience of
being a community science participant and shows how communities form around
these experiences.”
Partners on the
mussel project include Illinois RiverWatch, USRC, the Illinois Natural History
Survey, St. Louis Zoo, and the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
The film was
produced by Jason Lindsey Production and filming took place this past August at
four locations throughout the Upper Sangamon River Basin, located in
East-Central Illinois, at mussel monitoring events hosted by the USRC.
Funding for this
project was provided by the Let’s Talk About Water grant through CUAHSI the
(Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.)
from funding provided by the National Science Foundation as well as Living
Earth Collaborative.
Those interested
in attending the event, register at https://conta.cc/3WV6CAG or contact Griffis at hgriffis@lc.edu or (618) 468-2781.
Visit http://www.ngrrec.org/riverwatch to learn more about the Illinois
RiverWatch community science programs.
National
Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC ℠ )
Founded
in 2002 as a collaborative partnership between the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Lewis and Clark Community College, NGRREC is dedicated to
the study of great river systems and the communities that use them. The center
aspires to be a leader in scholarly research, education, and outreach related
to the interconnectedness of large rivers, their floodplains, watersheds, and
their associated communities.