The days have gotten away from me! It seems like everywhere I have worked, there are a couple of months where all the environmental education and outreach to the public is concentrated. In Washington, that time seems to be April and May and I have been so busy! But, part of that time I’ve been lucky enough to help out on some citizen science projects and I’ve gotten some training for other efforts that are in the works. When I lived in Nevada, I participated in an annual bald eagle count on Lake Mead, but I wasn’t aware of any other citizen science opportunities. In Washington, they are so abundant, it is almost overwhelming. Last month was the time for amphibian egg mass counting and the beginning of great blue heron nesting and foraging monitoring. I learned about intertidal and crab monitoring on the Salish Sea and an upcoming effort to watch for signs of climate change in the lowland forests. I received emails from Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology about the Big Day bird count. What’s going on?
Citizen Science can be defined as the participation of ordinary people in scientific work. Anyone, from children to adults, can be taught the skills necessary to observe, monitor or collect data for a particular project. Good projects have protocols developed by scientists and use subject matter experts who review the data for accuracy. Why do scientists use laypeople? Because there is so much work to be done! Volunteers can expand the capacity of a project well beyond the ability of one scientist to collect data. In return, the citizen scientist learns so much and can take pride in contributing to a scientific study. One quick foray into a great blue heron nesting colony (rookery), hooked me on these magnificent birds and sparked my curiosity about their behavior. I am eager to help scientists understand why the herons are forming mega-colonies of hundreds of nests near the Salish Sea and why the colony on Samish Island was suddenly abandoned last year. Most participants feel this same passion. Here are just a few examples of projects that anyone can check out:
http://scistarter.com This is a clearing house for projects, but does not capture all that are available
https://www.inaturalist.org Find a citizen science project or just upload personal nature observations to a database
Butterflies
http://www.monarchwatch.org Monarch tagging and monitoring east of the Rockies
https://monarchalert.calpoly.edu/ Monarchs west of the Rockies
http://www.swmonarchs.org/index.php Monarchs in Arizona and southwestern US
https://monarchlab.org/mlmp Monarch larvae in US and Canada
http://www.naba.org North American Butterfly Association projects
https://www.nps.gov/noca/getinvolved/supportyourpark/butterfly-project.htm North Cascades National Park, WA
Birds
http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc Christmas bird count
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbcapps Great Backyard Bird Count
http://www.birds.cornell.edu.pfw Project Feeder Watch
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/birdsleuth Great resource to learn more about bird projects and school children
Frogs
http://www.aza.org/frogwatch
https://whatfrogs.wordpress.com Whatcom County, WA amphibian projects
Other insects
http://www.lostladybug.org Ladybugs-I’ve done this with little kids. It’s a lot of fun!
https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/ Photograph bumblebees and submit to project
http://xerces.org/dragonfly-migration/migration-monitoring/ Fall and spring movements of dragonflies
Other
http://www.re-sources.org/north-sound-stewards/citizen-science North Salish Sea projects through RE sources
Finding My Place 