1 | EwA Citizen Science Skills & Time Requirements | ||||||
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2 | ⓘ About EwA Citizen Science Program » www.earthwiseaware.org/citizen-science/ | ||||||
3 | Study | In Short | Location | Data Platform (Registering is free) | Responsibilities and Time Commitment (per site) | Required Sills & Interest | EwA Training |
4 | 🍃 Phenology — Recording nature’s seasonal events | Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Phenology monitoring is part of our effort to collect information about the impact of climate change on the synchronicity of fauna and flora phenophases (i.e., observable stages or phases in the annual life cycle of a plant or animal that can be defined by a start and endpoint). EwA is a USA National Phenology Network (NPN) partner. EwA uses its national standardized protocol to record phenophases. The collected data is stored and aggregated via the NPN’s Nature’s Notebook program/platform (Search for the ‘Earthwise Aware’ project and partner group). The EwA phenology program leader is an NPN certified local phenology leader. Last but not least, EwA is the proud winner 🥇 of the NPN 2019 Pheno Champion Award! | □ Middlesex Fells (Winchester, MA + Medford, MA) □ Somerville, MA: Spring Hill + Community Growing Center | Nature's Notebook https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook | □ Attend a Basic training field session and participate in a couple of field recording sessions □ Visit one of EwA's pheno sites two or more times a month from March through November for a one- to two-hour field session □ Enter your observations into your Nature’s Notebook Observation Deck (an online database created and supported by the US National Phenology Network) □ Hone your skills by participating in additional EwA workshops and educational sessions during the year □ Provide feedback on the program by responding to occasional surveys | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites biodiversity, phenology, and climate change impact □ Desire to observe nature closely and willingness to report observations accurately □ Ability to walk outdoors for at least one hour, or hike if the sites where you volunteer are located in the Fells. | □ Videos + webinars □ Protocol: EwA Phenology Quick Start Guide □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
5 | 🦋 Insect (& pollinators) diversity mapping and abundance study — Observing insect populations & life cycle | Surveying pollinators and other plant visitors is intended to help local entomologists and global conservation scientists. Continuous phenology and population data are lacking. The information that we record help fill the gap. We feed the info to different global databases that are tracking species occurrences (iNaturalist), species composition and abundance (Caterpillar Counts), and insect phenophases (Nature’s Notebook). Collecting such data is an important scientific effort that helps us better understand the collapse of insect populations, which is being observed throughout the world. This kind of data is critical to understand the implications on avian populations, other fauna at large, and on our own species (e.g., food security). A better understanding will lead to better societal actions and policies. | All EwA sites: □ Middlesex Fells (Winchester, MA + Medford, MA) □ Fresh Pond (Cambridge, MA) □ Horn Pond (Woburn, MA) □ Somerville, MA: Community Growing Center + City at large (for diversity mapping) | □ iNaturalist (diversity mapping) https://www.inaturalist.org/ □ Caterpillars Count (abundance survey) https://caterpillarscount.unc.edu □ Nature's Notebook (Insect connector survey at the Growing Center) https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook | □ Attend a Basic training field session and participate in a couple of field recording sessions □ Visit one of EwA's pheno-entomo sites two or more times a month from May through November for about a one-hour field session □ Enter your observations into the data platform pertaining to the study you contribute to □ Hone your skills by participating in additional EwA workshops and educational sessions during the year □ Provide feedback on the program by responding to occasional surveys | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites biodiversity, phenology, and climate change impact □ Desire to observe nature closely and willingness to report observations accurately □ Ability to walk outdoors for at least one hour, or hike if the sites where you volunteer are located in the Fells. | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ Protocol: EwA Plant Visitor Survey Protocol □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
6 | 🌿 Invasive plants mapping — Documenting & reporting invasive species pollution | 🚧 We are currently piloting a national recording protocol that combines data from other databases and organizations as well as volunteer observations. The effort is to participate in the development of a national network of invasive species distribution data that is shared with educators, land managers, conservation biologists, and beyond. This data is to become the foundation for a better understanding of invasive species distribution around the world. Biological pollution caused by invasive species is extremely challenging to deal with. We must actively seek solutions to control or eradicate the species which are problems already or have the potential to become problems. So we’re coming to the rescue, and help to grow the public support in the State to document rigorously and report invasives. This will help scientists to understand invasive species distribution and enable treatment interventions. We’ll be back soon with a protocol, and campaigns that you can join to help the effort. Stay tuned! | □ Middlesex Fells (Winchester, MA + Medford, MA) | EDDMapS https://www.eddmaps.org/ | □ Attend a Basic training field session and participate in a couple of field recording sessions □ Visit one of EwA's pheno sites two or more times a month from March through November for a one- to two-hour field session □ Enter your observations into EDDMapS □ Hone your skills by participating in additional EwA workshops and educational sessions during the year □ Provide feedback on the program by responding to occasional surveys | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites biodiversity, phenology, and climate change impact □ Desire to observe nature closely and willingness to report observations accurately □ Ability to walk outdoors for at least one hour, or hike if the sites where you volunteer are located in the Fells. | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
7 | 🐸 Vernal pool habitat documentation — Identifying & protecting the vernal pools of the Middlesex Fells Reservation | The Vernal Pool Awareness & Protection Project is a community-based conservation initiative for protecting the vernal pools and wetland habitats of the Middlesex Fells Reservation through education, partnerships, and science. The program focuses on the vernal pools of the Middlesex Fells Reservation that are not yet ‘certified’ (following the definition of Vernal Pools as defined by the State of Massachusetts). Working with local herpetologists, our goal is to document certify those potential pools so that they get protected under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act regulations. Doing so, we close species migration gaps between the non-certified and certified pools, therefore directly improving the conservation of wetland species, and specifically of the species of the Fells. | □ Middlesex Fells (Winchester, MA + Medford, MA) | EwA VP Form https://tinyurl.com/ewa-vp-form | ⚠️ Surveys can only happen with the EwA investigator allowed by the DCR. The role of the volunteer is to assist the investigator. □ Hone your skills by participating in additional EwA workshops and educational sessions during the year □ Provide feedback on the program by responding to occasional surveys | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to assist diligently our EwA investigators □ Interest in learning more about our sites biodiversity, phenology, and climate change impact □ Desire to observe nature closely and willingness to report observations accurately □ Ability to walk outdoors for at least a couple of hours and hike to our candidate pools in the Fells. | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ Protocol: EwA Vernal Pool Documentation Protocol □ In-field trainings + sessions with EwA investigator. □ Under covid-19 context: Keeping a distance of 6-feet between us when we document pools is de rigeur. |
8 | 🐾 General biodiversity mapping — Documenting species occurences | Our mission is simple: Give power to the people to understand the ecology of the habitats we survey in the region and participate in the active protection of these unique landscapes. The program gets nature enthusiasts and volunteers to data-collect relevant species and habitat biodiversity observations over time. It fosters a fundamental understanding of ecology, phenology, and ethics. It helps science and wildlife conservation advocacy. Our main study sites are the Middlesex Fells Reservation, the Fresh Pond Reservation (Cambridge), the Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary (Belmont), and the Community Growing Center (Somerville). | Anywhere really for opportunistic surveys + All EwA sites for our systematic surveys: □ Middlesex Fells (Winchester, MA + Medford, MA) □ Fresh Pond (Cambridge, MA) □ Horn Pond (Woburn, MA) □ Somerville, MA: Community Growing Center + City at large (for diversity mapping) | iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org | □ Opportunistic surveys happen whenever you want them to happen. □ The systematic surveys (EwA Massachusetts Biodiversity Projects) happen on a regular basis, and follow the EwA Phenology calendar (see the 'Phenology' entry above) | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites biodiversity, phenology, and climate change impact □ Desire to observe nature closely and willingness to report observations accurately □ Ability to walk outdoors for at least one hour, or hike if the sites where you volunteer are located in the Fells. | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ Protocol: EwA Quick Guide to Document Biodiversity with iNaturalist □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
9 | 💩 Biological pollution documentation — Studying the impact of the dog poop littering in the Middlesex Fells Reservation | This is a project to study the impact and raise awareness about the littering of the Middlesex Fells Reservation with Dog Poop (bagged and not). The effort is also supported by the Friends of the Middlesex Fells. As urban ecologists, we encounter specific urban situations. One is the abundance of dog poop in fragile habitats. We love our dogs, yet their parasites (harmless to them), and the chemicals in their processed diet food passing in their excrements (even when bagged) leach into the Fells wetlands when not disposed of properly. This in return harms a plethora of wildlife and their habitats. Further down the line, it hurts us too. We seem to forget that our parks are critical ecological reservoirs for us humans and our pets. 🗺️ Explore & Share the Fells poop map – Share your sightings with us! ⚠️ We need pics with exact timestamps and location/GPS metadata. The best way for us to collect your data (and guarantee data quality) is that you upload your pics to a shared google album that we’ll communicate upon request. Contact us at FellsDPMapping@earthwiseaware.org and ask us to join that album. | □ Middlesex Fells at large | EwA DPMap | □ Read the Dog poop mapping protocol. Share your pics as explained. □ A few times a year, join our systematic surveys. | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites habitat studies □ Ability to survey a few times a month | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ Protocol: EwA Bio-Pollution Mapping Protocol □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
10 | 🥾 Fells Rogue Trail Mapping Project — Studying the impact on natural habitars of informal/rogue/social/pirate trails in the Middlesex Fells Reservation | This is a mapping project to identify and study the impact of habitat fragmentation caused by user-created “rogue” trails, often from hiking and biking , in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The effort is also supported by the Friends of the Middlesex Fells. As urban ecologists, we encounter specific urban situations. One is the abundance of fragmented habitats, which alter the functional diversity of the different habitats of the Fells, degrades its flora, and harms its wildlife. Further down the line, it hurts us too. 🏵️ The Fells fauna and flora depend on stellar trail ethics. 🗺️ Be a Fells wildlife defender: download the DCR routes of the Fells on your Google Map and make sure that you remain on-trail when hiking, biking, or simply enjoying the Fells. | □ Middlesex Fells at large | EwA HDMap | □ Read the Rogue trail mapping protocol. Share your annotated tracks as explained. | □ Ability to meet the responsibilities and time commitment; □ Ability to work independently □ Interest in learning more about our sites habitat studies □ Ability to survey a few times a month | □ Videos + webinars + protocols □ Protocol: EwA Rogue Trail Mapping Protocol □ One In-field training at the beginning of your volunteering + you can join any of our monthly training for a refresher. □ Outside covid-19 context, we also like to do field work in a group context. Feel free to join our group sessions when we re-open group fieldwork. |
11 | ✋ Volunteer with Us! Apply Here Today > https://forms.gle/NGozyEeo43y5H6i19 | ||||||
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