Phenology: “The study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate” – Wikipedia.

Trout Unlimited, the University of Massachusetts and partners are developing the River’s Calendar project, a community science program that examines the impacts of climate change on the phenology of our nation’s coldwater riparian areas. Phenology is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle in these riparian systems and the fisheries they support, as shifting natural calendars in response to warming temperatures may cause damaging ripple effects throughout these ecosystems. Trout anglers will record temperature, stream flow, and seasonal aquatic insect, fish and riparian plant observations while fishing.

The River’s Calendar is currently in the early planning stages.  You can learn more about the project at a companion web site, www.riverscalendar.org,  (which may sooner or later migrate over to this web site – stay tuned).

Please join this River’s Calendar group if you would like to be a part of the effort.  We welcome your participation, and would love to hear your thoughts on any aspect of the River’s Calendar.  In the coming days and weeks, there will be a number of discussion threads opened in the River’s Calendar group. We’d like this to be a forum for conversations on a range of topics related to hatches, entomology, phenology, climate and other environmental changes coming to a stream near you, and what we anglers can do to protect, reconnect, restore and sustain what we value in this changing world.