The Last Green Valley will host two free training events for people interested in helping to document water quality in their towns by sampling and identifying bugs that live in river and stream bottoms.

The first session will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 28 at the USDA Service Center, 238 Town St., Norwich. The second will be from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 29 at Ashford Town Hall, 5 Town Hall Road.

“The River Bioassessment for Volunteers program was developed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to train citizen scientists how to help document healthy streams,” Jean Pillo, volunteer water quality monitoring coordinator for The Last Green Valley, said in a news release. “We use bugs that live in the stream as water quality indicators because they are surrounded by the water most of the year. Certain bugs are more stressed by pollution than others. If we find those pollution-sensitive bugs in a brook, then we know a lot about that brook without any chemical analysis.”

The river bioassessment process will help to gather important baseline information on the healthiest streams in the region, the news release said, providing information useful to municipalities during land use decision making. DEEP also uses this volunteer data as part of its water quality assessment report to Congress when four or more “good” kinds of bugs are found in a stream, the news release said.

“Our goal is to survey at least 20 streams this season," Pillo said. "The process is a fun way to help get important information and a way to meet other people that share your interest in a healthy environment."

For information or to sign up for one of the sessions, call Pillo at (860) 928-4948 or email her at Jean.Pillo@ConserveCT.org.