The Morro Bay National Estuary Program is hosting a free public forum to give local residents and visitors a chance to learn about the health of the estuary and watershed. The forum is set for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Morro Bay Community Center multi-purpose room.
NEWS NEP Forum 08-29NEP Monitoring Program Manager, Ann Kitajima, will discuss water quality and bacteria in the bay and watershed. Restoration Projects Manager, Jen Nix, will discuss the health of eelgrass in the bay, as well as past and future replanting efforts. There will also be Q&A sessions and educational displays. The NEP is celebrating its 20th Anniversary of being designated one of just 28 national estuaries.
Also, the NEP will once again next spring be able to conduct its annual health assessments of local creeks that empty into the estuary thanks to another grant from the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust. Each spring, Morro Bay National Estuary Program staff and volunteers conduct health assessments of creeks in the Morro Bay watershed. Called a “bioassessment” volunteers collect macroinvertebrates — macros or bugs living in the creek water and bottoms — and analyze habitats near about a dozen sites along local creeks. The samples are sent to a lab to be counted and identified.
This data provides valuable information about the creeks’ ability to support fish and other wildlife. Volunteers may do the work, but the lab analysis had gotten expensive and grants from the Miossi Trust have allowed this important work to continue.
“We are grateful to the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust for giving a third year of support for this valuable work,” NEP Executive Director, Adrienne Harris said. “This grant from the Miossi Trust not only funds the lab analysis, it also gives us the opportunity to continue our partnership with the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History to bring this knowledge to a wider audience.”
The NEP and State Parks’ Natural History Museum had teamed up to create a free program to introduce museum visitors of all ages to freshwater macroinvertebrates. Thanks to that initial support, the program is now held each summer and includes an opportunity for hands-on microscope work with samples collected locally.
