Chasing Dragons

Beginning in the 1990s, David Wagner of the University of Connecticut, and Mike Thomas, then affiliated with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, began to survey dragonflies and damselflies throughout the State.  Theirs and the findings of other researchers can be found in an “Odonate (dragonflies and damselflies) Database” housed at the University of Connecticut.  Dragonflies require clean water and clean upland areas in which to feed as adults.  As such, they may be viewed as indicators of the health of our environment.  In 2024-2025, Jay Kaplan, now serving as Director Emeritus at Roaring Brook Nature Center, undertook a study of these animals at 15 sites along the lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook.  The objective of the study was to determine how populations may have changed over the past 25-30 years.  Join us to find out what this study found, and what the results may mean with regard to our environment.