Climate science & Biodiversity science need you, your skills, and the information that you can collect. The good news is that you can really make a difference!

🔎 ▹ Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest bee to the unfurling of our most common weed. Sharing our findings with scientific data repositories help scientists find and use our data. All we have to do is observe. So then… We’re inviting you to participate in our projects. Let’s do it, together!

We are running 6 different kinds of biodiversity citizen science programs in Massachusetts, as well as worldwide through our biodiversity and nature system data collections.

These programs cover plant event timing monitoring; plant community assessment; pollinator and insect surveys; Biodiversity monitoring and mapping; bird counting & activity monitoring; and vernal pool documentation and certification.

We build, develop, and evolve our projects together with you bridging communities, domains, and expertise. Projects’ observations and documentation follow standardized or harmonized protocols and get uploaded to global platforms so that the information can be shared, used and compared between organizations and countries. The global platforms that we use include iNaturalist, Nature’s Notebook, Caterpillars Count and eBird. We also partner with professional scientists to achieve common local goals. In short, we make our data count!

⇩ What is EwA Citizen Science & Why We Need It ⇩ EwA Massachusetts Programs ⇩ More Citizen Science

“Besides democratizing biodiversity science and helping local and global scientists, EwA Citizen Science is also evidence-based activism and Earth citizenry” — C. O’Neill (EwA Founder)

EwA Citizen Science refers to the general public engagement in scientific research activities when citizens actively contribute to science either with their intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge or with their tools and resources.

Participants provide experimental data and facilities for researchers, raise new questions and co-create a new scientific culture. While adding value, citizen scientists acquire new learning and skills, and a deeper understanding of the scientific work in an appealing way.

As a result of this open, networked and trans-disciplinary scenario, science-society-policy interactions are improved leading to more democratic research based on evidence-informed decision making.

EwA Biodiversity & Climate Citizen Science is all about co-creative conservation using open and global science protocols and tools. That is, our principles and ways of implementing citizen science align with the European Commission’s vision explicated in their 2014 White Paper on Citizen Science. Additionally, we support studies for which data follow protocols that lead to comparable and usable data. Data should be open and transparent to scientists and the public worldwide. Our perspective goes far beyond using the public as a resource to gather data while potentially educating the public. It is inclusive and democratic; it bridges expertizes and domains; it truly values the skills of its citizen scientists and networks, and it enables genuine Open Science.

So, why join?

» Because Citizen science is exhilarating and connects us directly with Nature and the communities around us.

» Because Citizen science enables people from all walks of life to advance scientific research, while gaining new skills.

» Because recording what we observe helps scientists and resource managers understand when and where organisms occur, how species populations vary in richness and abundance, and how fast or slowly natural events happen.

» Because co-creative citizen science democratizes science and makes it less vulnerable to the priorities governed by lobbies and special interest groups, whose interests aren’t always aligned with ecological priorities and public safety.

» Because this way, we gain invaluable knowledge that informs us and helps us influence our communities, our government, and science itself.

Our projects specifically

Our projects cover Biodiversity mapping; Plant event timing monitoring (Phenology); Plant community assessment; Pollinator & insect surveys; Bird counting & activity monitoring; And vernal pool documentation and certification.

Most EwA studies take place in local parks and reservations and are in collaboration with partner organizations and experts. A few times each month, we open our field studies to the public, as an opportunity to learn about them, about their needs and protocol, also giving us the opportunity to share and to interest our audience to join our effort.

🦋 Insect & Pollinator Survey

Observing insect populations & life cycle

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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.

 

 ▶️ How EwA Helps Arthropods | 📊 » EwA Plant Visitor Survey Protocol | 📆 » EwA Events Calendar

🦌 Biodiversity Mapping

The iNat EwA Biodiversity Projects » Explore & participate!

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EwA actively records the biodiversity occurrence of 10 sites in 3 parks and reservations (Massachusetts, US). We also record biodiversity where ever we happen to be in the US and in the World…

★ EwA Nature Circles (World Biodiversity)

We encourage our circles’ community to join the EwA Nature Circles citizen science project on iNaturalist and record/post the pictures of the species they encounter during a circle, or when hiking or traveling. This is open to all our followers wherever they may be in the World. Join us, and share your sightings. Let’s learn from each other while helping science.

• ⭕ EwA Nature Circles Program Details » | iNat Project »

★ EwA Massachusetts Biodiversity Projects (Urban Wildlife, Woodland and Wetland Citizen Science)

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), and the Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary (Belmont).

• 🔎 ‘EwA at the Fells’ Program Details » | iNat Project »
• 🔎 ‘EwA at Fresh Pond’ Program Details » | iNat Project » 
• 🔎 ‘EwA at Habitat’ Program Details » | iNat Project » 
• 🔎 ‘EwA at the Growing Center’ Program Details » | iNat Project » 

View more EwA observations on iNaturalist.org

We also record biodiversity wherever in the world we happen to be in our iNat country-specific projects (e.g., EwA in Romania, EwA in Mongolia, EwA in the UK).

» Join EwA’s iNat Biodiversity Projects | » iNat Essentials | 📆 » EwA Events Calendar

🌱 Phenology

Recording Nature’s seasonal events

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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). 

One of our study locations is the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a 2800-acres urban woodland managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. There, we record seasonal fauna & flora cycles at 7 different sites.

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 are a partner of the USA National Phenology Network (NPN) and uses its national standardized protocol to collect phenophases. We store and aggregate the data via the NPN’s Nature’s Notebook program/platform (Search for the ‘Earthwise Aware’ project and partner group).

 

  📆 » EwA Events Calendar

🌿 Ecological Community Assessment

Tracking Changes in Ecological Communities

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Several times a year, we add to our phenology and biodiversity occurrence and abundance records and do ecological community assessments for some of our study sites, at the Middlesex Fells Reservation. This allows us to see how fauna and flora composition change over time in a rapidly changing world in critical at-risk habitats. These are necessary assessments measuring the health of our forests and geared to empower communities to inform environmental decision-makers.

Field protocols that we use include point count methods, habitat characterization methods, area searches, and species dominance assessment.

After gathering enough data, we report on the composition and changes and submit the information to the State’s institutions vested in the protection of the Fells.

 

  📆 » EwA Events Calendar

🦉 Bird Monitoring

Observing Bird Populations, Migration & Seasonal Activities

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Together with the EwA Pollinator Surveys, monitoring birds at all our sites is intended to help local entomologists and global conservation scientists. Continuous phenology and population data are lacking, and the information that we record helps fill the gap.

We feed the info to different global databases that are tracking species richness (iNaturalist), population abundance (eBird), and bird 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.

 

  📆 » EwA Events Calendar

🐸 Vernal Pool Awareness & Protection

Identifying & protecting the vernal pools of the Fells!

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The Vernal Pool Awareness & Protection Project is a cool community-based conservation initiative for protecting the vernal pools and wetland habitats of the Middlesex Fells Reservation through education, partnerships, and science.

This is an adult learning experience paired with direct participation in scientific research and wetland conservation efforts. 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 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.

 

📊 » EwA Vernal Pool Awareness & Protection Protocol | 📆 » EwA Events Calendar

Here are a couple of other popular Citizen Science platforms, which list not only Nature-based projects, but also a myriad of great projects in many various disciplines including biology, physics, astronomy, climate, and more.

scistarter is a place to find, join, and contribute to science through more than 1600 formal and informal research projects, events and tools. EwA projects are showcased there as well! SciStarter’s database of citizen science projects enables discovery, organization, and greater participation in science. This is also the place to track your contributions, bookmark things you like, and access the tools and instruments needed to get started.

Zooniverse is a large and very popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers—hundreds of thousands of people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Zooniverse’s goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

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