On a hike

I need your help finding "Desmond," an Elderberry Longhorn Beetle, formally known as *Desmocerus palliatus!*

This *beautiful* beetle species used to live throughout a large part of eastern North America but in recent decades it appears as if it has declined in numbers. We need your help to figure out if and why this might be true and how we can help them move back into areas they once lived.

The Elderberry Longhorn Beetle is easy to spot with its bold patterns of blue and gold and long antennae. It's so attractive, in fact, that it was chosen for a USPS stamp design in 1999!

The Dark Sky Meter (available for iPhones) allows citizen scientists to contribute to a global map of nighttime light pollution. Light pollution is a growing problem in urban environments, but now you can help scientists better understand its effects on the environment. By utilizing the camera built in to your iPhone, the Dark Sky Meter actually measures ‘skyglow’ and updates the data in real time.

The Pro version of the app also charts weather conditions and cloud cover so you can take readings at optimal times. The app is as easy to use as taking a picture, and is a fun way to learn about your night sky.

How many stars can you see where you live? The Loss of the Night App (available for Android devices) challenges citizen scientists to identify as many stars as they can in order to measure light pollution. The app is fun and easy to use, and helps users learn constellations as they contribute to a global real-time map of light pollution.

Stargazing is a fantastic way to engage young scientists, but this ancient past time has become increasingly difficult in growing urban areas. Help scientists understand the effects of light pollution and learn about your night sky!

You don't need to leave the city to take part, in fact, the app is designed specifically for use in very polluted areas.

The more stars you observe, and the more often you run the app, the more precise the data for your location will become. As the seasons change so do the stars in the sky, and since there aren't so many very bright stars it is extremely helpful if urban users do measurements in each season.

iPhone users can contribute their own data via the dark sky meter project: http://www.scistarter.com/project/802-Dark%20Sky%20Meter

Anyone without a phone can take part during some parts of the year via GLOBE at Night: http://www.scistarter.com/project/169-GLOBE%20at%20Night

CyberTracker Conservation is a non-profit organisation that promotes the vision of a Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Network. Our ultimate vision is that smart phone users worldwide will use CyberTracker to capture observations on a daily basis.

CyberTracker is the most efficient method of gps field data collection. You can use CyberTracker on a Smartphone or handheld computer to record any type of observation. CyberTracker, which requires no programming skills, allows you to customize an Application for your own data collection needs.

The Marine Debris Tracker mobile application allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. Data you submit is available to download online and you also have access to mapping all data, worldwide. Marine Debris Tracker is a joint partnership of the NOAA Marine Debris Division and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI), located within the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia.

FoxPop is a public science engagement project which aims to get Dublin citizens involved in a city-wide collection of data on urban foxes. Despite their presence all over the capital, little or no research has been carried out in terms of numbers. Please help us by submitting any sightings, locations, dates and times if you please.

Starting March 15, 2013, the Audubon Society needs citizen scientists to track, report on, and follow the spring hummingbird migration in real time. A free mobile app makes it easy to report sightings, share photos and learn more about these remarkable birds.

Your participation will help scientists understand how hummingbirds are impacted by climate change, flowering patterns, and feeding by people.

You can participate at any level – from reporting a single sighting to documenting hummingbird activity in your community throughout the life of the project. Help scientists document the hummingbirds journey and direct change in the future to ensure these incredible birds do not disappear.

A study was conducted 40 years ago which suggested a link between climate and when west-European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) come out of hibernation. Last year we repeated this study and over two thousand people logged around 45,000 hedgehogs across Britain. The unusual weather in 2012 has made patterns of activity quite confusing so we are repeating the survey this year to find out more.

We need your help to collect hedgehog records from 1st February until 31st August 2013. Understanding patterns of hedgehog behaviour across the UK will enable us to target the conservation strategy for this charming animal, which is currently in severe decline.

The iSeeChange Almanac is a socially networked weather Almanac for communities to collectively journal their climate experiences -- their observations, feelings, questions, and decisions --- against near-real time climate information.

Founded in April 2012 in Western Colorado, iSeeChange is a public radio and media experiment that fosters multimedia conversations between citizens and scientists about how seasonal weather and climate extremes affect daily American life. From the earliest spring recorded in the history of the United States, a landmark wildfire season, nationwide droughts, and weather records breaking everyday, climate affects every citizen and binds communities together.

iSeeChange is produced by Julia Kumari Drapkin in Western Colorado at KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio as a part of Localore, a nationwide production of AIR in collaboration with Zeega, with principal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We just launched the Almanac this week in Western Colorado. Stay tuned for more locations in the coming year!

The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab in NYC is investigating the different ways people and dogs play together, and we need your help (well, you and your dog’s help). We are cataloguing all the ways people play with their dogs and asking dog owners to submit short videos of their own dog-human play.

By participating in Project: Play with Your Dog, citizen scientists are providing valuable information into the nuances and intricacies of our relationships with dogs.

AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing health and environmental data using your smartphone. Each AirCasting session lets you capture real-world measurements, annotate the data to tell your story, and share it via the CrowdMap.

Using the AirCasting Android app, AirCasters can record, map, and share:
(o) sound levels recorded by their phone microphone;
(o) temperature, humidity, CO and NO2 gas concentrations recorded by the Arduino-powered AirCasting Air Monitor, and;
(o) heart rate measurements recorded by the Zephyr HxM.

Using AirCasting Luminescence, these sensor streams can also be represented using LED lights.

Project BudBurst, a NEON citizen science program, is a network of people across the United States monitoring plants as the seasons change. We are a national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants (plantphenophases). Project BudBurst participants make careful observations of these phenophases. We are interested in observations from five plant groups – deciduous trees and shrubs; wildflowers and herbs; evergreens; conifers; and grasses. To participate, you simply need access to a plant.

Supporting and enhancing our understanding of continental-scale environmental change, Project BudBurst data are being collected in a consistent manner across the country for scientists and educators to use to learn more about the responsiveness of individual plant species to changes in local, regional and national climates. Thousands of people from all 50 states are participating and have generated a robust data set that is available for use by scientists and educators to increase understanding of how plants respond to environmental change. Formal and informal educators are finding Project BudBurst an effective approach to engaging their students and visitors in an authentic research experience.
Join our growing community!

Whether you have an afternoon, a few weeks, a season, or a whole year, you can make an important contribution to a better understanding of changing climates. Participating in Project BudBurst is easy – everything needed to participate is on the web site. Choose a plant to monitor and share your observations with others online. Not sure where to start? Take a look at our Ten Most Wanted species.

Project BudBurst is a NEON Citzen Science Program funded by the National Science Foundation.

Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a serious exotic disease that is threatening the survival of tanoak and several oak species in California. By collecting leaf samples during community SOD blitzes and submitting your samples to UC Berkeley diagnostic laboratory, you can help create a detailed local map of disease distribution.

SOD-blitzes inform and educate the community about Sudden Oak Death, get locals involved in detecting the disease, and produce detailed local maps can then be used to identify those areas where the infestation may be mild enough to justify proactive management. You can participating in an existing SOD-blitz or create your own.

Good news: SOD-Blitzes are COMPLETELY FREE thanks to funding from the US Forest Service to the UC Berkeley Forest Pathology Lab!

Where are the invasive species in Maine? Where aren’t they? Students, educators, citizens, and scientists are working together to find out.

As part of the Vital Signs community you can help steward the 32,000 miles of rivers and streams, 6,000 lakes and ponds, 5,000 miles of coastline, and 17 million acres of forest that are threatened by invasive species.

Together we are using scientific tools and habits of mind to look for native and invasive species in local habitats. We are sharing what we find and do not find online. We are contributing to a greater understanding of our shared environment.

By just taking photos and observing spiders, you can help the Explorit Science Center learn about which climates certain spiders live in and track the distribution of spiders over time.

Join the Explorit’s Community Science Project by finding and recording spiders in your home or neighborhood (as many as you can!). Use your camera or smart phone to take a photo of the spider and submit it online to add to our geographical database.

Spiders have long been thought of a useful natural method of pest control, but how will expected temperature changes or other environmental changes affect the spider’s usefulness as pest-killers and their distribution?

We don't yet know how climate change will impact spiders, and in turn impact agriculture such as crops and farms- but when we understand where spiders are living today, we will be better able to predict what may happen to spiders and agriculture in the future.

Landmark Trees of India is a documentation, geography, and monitoring project with a focus on famous, remarkable, and heritage trees of India.
India is a country of superlative population, superlative biodiversity, and superlative environmental variety. These landmark trees can teach us about the landscapes, biodiversity, and people of India and the other nations of the world.

We are a group of scientists interested in exploring the potential applications of Ecuador’s unique biodiversity. As a first step, we are working to assemble and apply gene libraries collected from around the country.
You can join field trips in Ecuador to collect samples, work in a lab extracting and sequencing nucleic acids, or from home assembling and curating the electronic database.

The North Mountain Plant Inventory Project is a collaboration between the Conservation Alliance, the Plant Atlas Project of Arizona, the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council, and the City of Phoenix.
Our goals are to:
1)improve our scientific knowledge of North Mountain Park flora for land management, scientific, conservation, and educational purposes.
2)to train, engage and educate members of the public as plant stewards
and
3)to provide a databased plant atlas located on the Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINET).

Prepare to get wet and muddy for science! We're looking for citizen scientists in North Carolina to help us learn more about the large, charismatic aquatic insects known as water sticks.

Simply find a body of water in your area, follow the protocol, and submit your data! We'll teach you how to identify the water sticks you find and how to cheaply build any equipment you don't already have (you'll have most of it). And if you don't find anything in the body of water you choose, no problem! Every bit of information helps and anything you can share is useful. With YOUR help, we can discover more about the seasonality, habitat preferences, and distribution of water sticks - together!

uBiome is the world's first effort to map the human microbiome through citizen science.

What's the microbiome? The microbiome are the bacteria that live on and within us. It sounds kind of funny, but all of us are actually covered in helpful germs. Many conditions – from diabetes to depression, asthma to autism -- have been found to relate to the microbiome.

uBiome brings this cutting edge technology directly to consumers for the first time. The more data we collect, the more we can learn about this important area of research. We've been featured so far in Wired, Venture Beat, the Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, BoingBoing, and more.

Magpie Mapper is a smartphone app for recording observations of Magpies, one of the most fascinating and striking birds in the United Kindgom. When you see a magpie, simply log it on the app and your data will be used in our research into how birds are distributed throughout our towns cities and countryside.

With their long tails and impressive black and white plumage, magpies are unmistakable. Magpies are so ingrained in our folklorethat people often greet them with "Hello Mr Magpie!".

Now you can digitally salute a magpie with the Magpie Mapper app!

The Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County, is partnering with Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) to share data and learn more about L.A. butterflies and moths. Help us find and photograph them in Los Angeles.

We know there are 237 species recorded for L.A, County, but how many can you find?

Utah Water Watch (UWW) is a water quality education and data collection program that seeks to increase awareness about the importance of water quality and promote stewardship of Utah’s aquatic resources.

UWW is a partnership between USU Water Quality Extension and the Utah Division of Water Quality that creates a way for the public to help in monitoring Utah’s lakes and streams. This is a free program for volunteers of all ages to monitor water quality once a month and report the data to water managers.

Get to know the nature of YOUR world! The Fairbanks Community of Observers is to encourage greater public clarity around environmental indicators of climate change in Vermont and northern New Hampshire. Using the website developed by the Fairbanks Museum, we'll collect your quantitative data focused on the life cycles of specific birds, butterflies and wildflowers that are sensitive to environmental change as well as seasonal weather data that is characteristic to our region.

The Community of Observers is for individuals, families, clubs, groups and schools. It is designed to encourage citizen scientists to gain a deeper understanding of the cycles and patterns that characterize our region through the seasons, and how the habitats that depend on these cycles might be affected by global climate shifts.

The Geo-Wiki Project is a citizen science network that hopes to improve the overall quality of land use and land cover maps across the globe. They host a variety of projects, all of which use their online Google Earth Application to enlist citizen scientists to improve spatial data. By comparing global land use and land cover data to the aerial photography that appears in Google Earth, you can help improve the validity of important data that is being used to solve important global problems.

Geo-Wiki supports a variety of projects that tackle issues that include climate change, the bio-diversity of plants, and the viability of changing agriculture.

They even have developed mobile apps that allow you to ‘ground truth’ data by adding your own photographs of what’s near you.

The Owl Citizen Science Project is a great opportunity to better understand the owls of Tryon Creek and improve your knowledge of these amazing creatures. The Friends of Tryon Creek will host a lively kick-off lunch and information session for an exciting citizen science project dedicated to the owls of Tryon Creek. This lunch is intended for adults interested in participating in this year’s monitoring effort twice monthly, December through April, as we attempt to discover where Tryon’s owl species are nesting. This is a great opportunity to better understand the owls of Tryon Creek and improve your knowledge of these amazing creatures. Join us for lunch and learn more. Free. Preregistration required. On October 27th, Citizen Science Project – Owls of Tryon Creek Kick-off Lunch, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. –

The brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive insect species that has become an damaging pest of a wide variety of fruit, vegetable, grain, and ornamental crops. This stink bug species also enters homes and can be a nuisance pest. Our webpage allows citizens to report the presence and severity of this stink bug species in their home, yard, farm, or commercial nursery.

This DIY mapping tool was the first developed by Public Lab, as part of the Grassroots Mapping project. Citizens use helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high resolution “satellite” maps of areas such as in the Gulf Coast and Gowanus Canal. Although this tool has been in use for two years, components of the kit -- kite and balloon design, the rig, the camera -- continue to evolve as they are adopted in new places and adapted for new purposes. Besides the aerial mapping tools, Public Lab has also developed MapKnitter.org, an online tool for stitching aerial images into maps.

Infrared photography can help in assessing plant health, and has been used on satellites and planes for agricultural and ecological assessment primarily by vineyards, large farms and large-scale (read: expensive) research projects. By creating and open-sourcing a low-cost near-infrared camera and working with wetlands advocates, farmers and environmental activists, the Public Lab community has begun to explore grassroots uses for this powerful analytic technique.

Help tackle invasive plant species!

The Environment Agency, the Nature Locator team at the University of Bristol and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have joined forces to help combat the spread of the UK’s most problematic invasive, non-native plant species.

We need your help to find them and record them.

This smartphone app will help you explore habitats in your area and easily monitor wildlife populations by logging locations, photos, and responding to form questions all with the ease of your smartphone.

More than 7,000 ring-billed gulls have been marked near Montreal, Quebec with individually coded bands to track their movements throughout their annual cycle. We are more specifically interested by their post-breeding dispersal and their fidelity to their colony. Repeated observations of individuals also allow us to estimate annual survival. This is part of a larger study that aimed at understanding the behavior and population dynamics of these birds within an integrated management framework.

We are currently seeking research assistants to join our field team in Ecuador studying the conservation ecology of reptiles and amphibians.

While Ecuador is a relatively small country—it’s roughly the size of Arizona—it stands as the third most diverse country in the world for amphibians (510 species) and is seventh for reptiles (430 species), making it a herpetologically mega-diverse region. Due to the severe deforestation taking place in addition to many other pressures on Ecuador’s fauna, TBG research program aims to study, document, and preserve these rich and unique communities of reptiles and amphibians found within the country’s diverse array of ecosystems.

As we are now in our 8th year working in Ecuador, we have study sites encompassing both the coastal forests in western Ecuador and the Amazon rainforest on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains. The work that research participants will be involved with will primarily consist of conducting night surveys for reptiles and amphibians (however other taxa such as invertebrates are also of interest), animal data collection, and lab work. Lab work consists of more detailed information such as scale counts (for reptiles) and other morphological information, animal measurements, screening for chytrid disease (amphibians), preservation (only when necessary), and acquisition of DNA samples. Diagnostic photographs of all animals will be taken. Other tasks include animal handling and general note taking and data organization

Volunteer participants will gain valuable research experience, contribute towards our mission in conservation ecology, and will have an unforgettable experience that provides the opportunity to study the most biologically diverse region of reptiles and amphibians in the world. For 2013 we now have expeditions scheduled in Western Ecuador for February 2-13 and FeBruary 16-27 and in Amazonian Ecuador for June 2-13.

ZomBee Watch is a citizen science project sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Biology, the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum of LA County. ZomBee Watch was initiated as a follow-up to the discovery that the Zombie Fly Apocephalus borealis is parasitizing honey bees in California and possibly other areas of North America.

ZomBee Watch has three main goals.
1. To determine where in North America the Zombie Fly Apocephalus borealis is parasitizing honey bees.
2. To determine how often honey bees leave their hives at night, even if they are not parasitized by the Zombie Fly.
3. To engage citizen scientists in making a significant contribution to knowledge about honey bees and to become better observers of nature.

We need your help finding out where honey bees are being parasitized by the Zombie Fly and how big a threat the fly is to honey bees. So far, the Zombie Fly has been found parasitizing honey bees in California and South Dakota. We are teaming up with citizen scientists (like you!) to determine if the fly has spread to honey bees across North America.

We need your help to better understand dragonfly migration in North America. Although it spans three countries and has been documented since the 1880s, North American dragonfly migration is still poorly understood, and much remains to be learned about migratory cues, flight pathways, and the southern limits of overwintering grounds. Become part of an international network of citizen scientists and help monitor the spring and fall movements of the 5 main migratory species in North America, or report on these species throughout the year at a pond or wetland of your choice.

Counting butterflies for just fifteen minutes could help scientists better understand the environment. The Big Butterfly Count is a recently started national survey that hopes to engage citizen scientists by creating easy and engaging survey methods. Started by the charity group Butterfly Conservation in 2010, the program has grown to over 34,000 participants!

The big butterfly count takes place this year from Saturday 14th July - Sunday 5th August 2012. All you have to do is submit your butterfly counts for just fifteen minutes of observation. A colorful identification poster is available online and submission on the project website couldn’t be easier.

Butterflies are quite sensitive to changes in the environment and are excellent indicators of potential issues with other wildlife. By studying the trends in butterfly counts, scientists can better understand the relationships between wildlife and the environment.

This is an easy, fun, and meaningful way to engage in science. Print out an identification poster, get outside, and start counting!

The Tiny Terrors Project needs volunteers to monitor the invasive insect species of adelgids that attack both hemlocks and Fraser firs (the most popular Christmas Tree in North America).

Although barely visible to the naked eye, adelgids and their effects on trees can be detected by citizen scientists. Tiny Terrors is calling on you to help them identify both health and infected trees all across the Eastern United States.

The project runs through the Spring 2013. Data collection is easy once you have identified an area that contains hemlock or Fraser fir, and you can submit your observations online.

Not only are both tree species valued for their beauty, but because of their numbers, they provide wildlife habitat and are an important source of lumber. Your help can help researchers find potentially resistant trees and aid in developing genetically resistant trees to restore forests.

The Tiny Terrors Project is based out of the North Carolina State University Forest Entomology Lab and was created for the Alliance for Saving Threatened Trees.

The Reinforcers is a new crowdsourcing project sponsored by [ ] to encourage the public to take an active role in taking care of their local infrastructures supported by concrete (bridges, parking garages, tunnels, overpasses, etc).
[blurb about corrosive steel, etc...why this effort is important; how it can help] [links to existing educational materials and activities.]

Simple upload pictures to report suspicious-looking concrete structures in your neighborhood to help build a map to identify structures in need of review.

Your reports will be shared with the [xyz] who will review each picture and report those of concern to [ xyy] for further analysis.

Adventurers and Scientist for Conservation is a unique initiative that helps create working reationships between scientists and adventure athletes to perform some truly unique research. Projects have been created all over the world and by groups of all kinds. The project even provides training for adventurers to become adventure-scientists.

The exciting benefits from these projects are numerous. Adventurers benefit by contributing to meaningful conservation research in areas that they visit. Additionally, scientists benefit from attaining inexpensive data that would have been previously hard or impossible to acquire. By no means, however are these adventure research projects limited to avid adventurers and professional scientists. Programs can be created anywhere for any age group. The goal of the project is to train and inspire the next generation of citizen scientists. In short, Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation will help you create a project, recruit participants, and start an Adventure Science project near you!

Leafsnap is an exciting new mobile app that is designed to help citizen scientists identify and locate tree species from photographs and ultimately help the scientific world develop a better understanding of biodiversity. Developed by Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution, Leafsnap contains a unique visual recognition software that helps users identify species from the photographs taken straight from your iphone or ipad.

The app is completely free and will be the first in a series of apps that takes advantage of the newly developed recognition software. The app also contains high-resolution photos of the leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, and bark of all sorts of species, and is a wonderful visual field guide. Currently, the species of New York City and Washington D.C. are supported, but this list will be expanded in the future.

The app is very user friendly and easy to use. With each photo of a leaf you take, the photo, species information, and geo-location is all automatically sent to the Leafsnap database for scientists to study species distribution.

This Leafsnap website shows the tree species included so far, a visual map of the collectors that have recently contributed, and more information on the project. Contributing to citizen science couldn’t be easier than with this visually engaging app! Get snapping and identify a tree near you!

The Snake Count needs citizen scientists to map and track snake distributions across North America. This is your chance to take an active role in in snake conservation.

2012 Count Dates:
Spring: May 12-20
Fall: September 15-23

The goal of the Snake Count is to document every species of snake that occurs in the United States in a single time period. The data collected during the Snake Count will be used by the Center for Snake Conservation to map the current distribution of snakes. The data collected will confirm the existence of some rare species and provide baseline data to help monitor selected populations of more common species in the future.

By participating in this project, you'll learn how to find and identify snakes, and your efforts will help scientists identify conservation concerns for snakes across North America. Everyone who participates in the Snake Count does it for the joy of being outdoors and helping promote the conservation of our most unique predators--snakes!

The Tucson Bird Count is an annual project in which volunteers collect data on the abundances and distributions of bird species from hundreds of sites in the Tucson area.

Volunteers can participate in two programs: 1) The annual Route Program, in which participants count individuals of all bird species, and 2) the quarterly Park Monitoring Program, in which groups adopt an area and spend four mornings a year counting birds at that area.

The data collected will help researchers monitor the status of the Tucson area bird community over time, identify land use practices that are succeeding at sustaining native birds, and investigate the ecology of birds in human-inhabited landscapes. Data and analyses, including distribution maps for most species counted in the Tucson Bird Count, are publicly available on the project web site.

The Tucson Bird Count (TBC) is a cooperative project begun by members of Tucson's science, conservation, and birding communities.

Solitary bees and wasps in your own backyard!!!

Native Buzz is a citizen science project created by the University of Florida (UF) Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab. Our goal is to learn more about the nesting preferences, diversity and distribution of our native solitary bees and wasps, share the information gained and provide a forum for those interested in participating in the science and art of native beekeeping (and wasp-keeping!).

Here at University of Florida Native Buzz you can keep track of your own native buzz nest site and see the results of other participant’s nest sites.

River otters are ideal ambassadors for habitat preservation and restoration since they are charismatic carnivores reliant on healthy watersheds to thrive. The River Otter Ecology Project strives to build understanding and shed light on the conservation status and ecology of the North American river otter and the ecosystems they inhabit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our work will serve to fill key gaps in the biology and ecology of these elusive but important aquatic carnivores while also directly engaging the public in their conservation through field-research, environmental education and strategic restoration partnerships.

Osprey Watch is a project of the Center for Conservation Biology for birdwatchers across the nation to help identify osprey nests and observe osprey behavior. The project hopes to acquire data across a large enough spatial scale in order to address three pressing issues associated with aquatic ecosystems: climate change, depletion of fish stocks, and environmental contaminants. Ospreys are great indicators of the health of aquatic ecosystems as they are sensitive to small changes in fish populations and water quality.

OspreyWatch has almost 500 Osprey Watchers monitoring almost 800 nests across the nation and in Europe. Ospreys are incredible birds of prey and viewing them in the wild can be an amazing experience. And it may be easier than you think. Many osprey nest in man made objects and might even be right outside your backdoor.

So grab a camera, some binoculars, and locate a nest near you to add photos and descriptions to OspreyWatch’s interactive map. You can even find other nests in your area and help monitor and add updates to nesting activity.

Like moths to a flame? Did you know the US is home to over 11,000 moth species? Head outside during National Moth Week July 23-29, 2012 and find a few. Join existing teams or organize a count in your area! Photograph or record moths spotted in parks, environmental education centers, or fluttering around your porchlight.

Olympic National Park needs teams of volunteers to hike locations within the park to record up-to-date information about the declining number of Olympic marmots.

This is timely information that is vital to our understanding of this endemic mammal and its future. Most of the sites would not be visited without the help of volunteers.

Field days will consist of hiking, surveying, or both depending on your destination. Volunteers must be capable of traveling and camping in remote areas.

Sign up for the 2012 season and help researchers learn what is happening to the marmot populations from year to year.

The aim of PHOWN is to study variation of colony sizes of weavers, to map their breeding distribution, and to study these aspects in relation to climate change. This is achieved with the help of citizen scientists submitting photos of weaver nests or colonies.

Some feral populations exist throughout the world, and may be included in PHOWN. Species include the true weavers, bishops and widows, queleas, social weavers, sparrow weavers, buffalo weavers, malimbes and fodies. Sparrows are not included.

Weavers are often common species, and often found near human habitation. This makes them easy to study. Some species are of conservation concern and for some the nest has not even been described yet!

FieldScope is a community web-mapping tool that promotes student engagement as citizen scientists and involves them in learning through mapping. By combining easy data integration with powerful mapping visualization, FieldScope is on the cutting edge of community mapping.

The application is accessed online and is requires no installation. Students are able to upload field data photos and other media as well as collaborate with other students and scientists, and perform analysis on existing data. There are many rich projects to choose from, including mapping water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, investigating watershed dynamics, and mapping rivers and streams in the National Parks.

With students able to contribute and interact alongside scientists, meaningful science is sure to happen!

Spy on nature, and contribute to science. Share photos and observations through SciSpy and you're contributing to research initiatives that rely on amateur participation. Created by Science Channel (Discovery), SciSpy enlists paticipants to document the natural world of their backyards, parks, cities, and towns. Photos and observation data are tagged and stamped with date, time and location information and will hopefully provide helpful information to track migrations, changes in the natural environment, seasonal trends and more.

THE BROAD PICTURE: The aim of MammalMAP is to update the distribution records of all African mammal species. Through collaborations with professional scientists, conservation organisations, wildlife authorities and citizen scientists across Africa, we consolidate all reliable and identifiable evidence (camera trap records, photographs) of current mammal locations into an open-access digital database. The database software automatically generates online distribution maps of all recorded species which are instantly visible and searchable. The information consolidated within MammalMAP will not only yield crucial information for species conservation policies and landscape conservation policies, but provides an excellent platform for educating the public about African mammals and their conservation challenges.

WHY MAMMALMAP IS NECESSARY: In Africa, our knowledge of mammal distribution patterns is based largely on historical records. However, the last three centuries have seen extensive human-modification of African landscapes with the associated conversion, compression and fragmentation of natural land. With further land development presenting a likely reality for the future, the effectiveness of mammal conservation efforts depends on ecological records being updated so that they accurately reflect mammal distribution patterns in the 21st Century. With MammalMAP we plan to conduct these ecological updates over the coming years, by mapping the current distribution of mammal species (including marine mammals and small mammals) across Africa.

HOW MAMMALMAP CONTRIBUTES TO CONSERVATION: The conservation benefits of this research are multiple. First, the comparison of these updated distribution records with both historical and future records will enable the detection of species’ distribution changes in response to human-related and climate-related habitat changes. These change detections will assist the guidance of continent-wide conservation policies and decision making processes. Second, the research will promote and facilitate interdisciplinary and international collaboration amongst scientists and conservation practitioners, with potential benefits to the advancement of conservation science. Finally, both the project input stage (data collection) and output stage (data dissemination) will offer interactive, dynamic and widely applicable education tools suitable for both formal and informal education sectors.

THE WHERE AND THE HOW OF MAMMALMAP: The area of interest for MammalMAP is the whole of Africa. To achieve this we collaborate with scientists, conservation organisations, wildlife authorities and citizen scientists across the continent. Our methods involve consolidating evidence of mammal occurrence in a given location (camera trap records, photographs and other reliable records) into a digital database hosted by the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town. In time, we will use the records in the database to generate distribution maps for all recorded species, in the same way that the ADU has done for birds, reptiles, frogs and butterflies.

Wildlife Sightings is a free service that lets anyone to publish, organize, and manage their own wildlife sightings data.

Wildlife Sightings helps eliminate the technical barriers and costs to non-profit organizations and educators wishing to conduct their own wildlife surveys. That way, nature lovers, conservation groups, eco-tourism business, and educators can focus their energy on what they love most -- citizen science!

By documenting the biodiversity around you, you can enjoy nature and aid conservation efforts at the same time.

In order to conduct a large-scale survey of urban spiders, we need the help of the public. We are asking people to collect spiders in their homes and gardens, fill out a simple data sheet about their collection, and send or bring the spiders and forms to the Natural History Museum.

In spite of their importance and abundance, we do not know much about the spiders in Los Angeles. There are no truly large collections of urban spiders from this area, as most collectors concentrate on studying natural areas.

As an important international port, new species of spiders from various parts of the world are always being accidentally introduced into the Los Angeles area, and some of these have established breeding populations. We need to know how widespread these introduced species have become, and how they have interacted with the native spiders. Also, we want to know how urbanization and the loss of natural habitat has affected populations and distributions of naturally occurring spiders.

In the late 1990′s, bee biologists started to notice a decline in the abundance and distribution of several wild bumble bee species. Three of these species (western bumble bee, rusty patched bumble bee, yellowbanded bumble bee) were once very common and important crop pollinators over their ranges. Franklin’s bumble bee was historically found only in a small area in southern Oregon and northern California, and it may now be extinct. A recent study led by Sydney Cameron, Ph.D., has also drawn attention to a rapid decline of the American bumble bee.

We are very interested in tracking the status of these five bumble bee species and finding out where current populations are situated. If you have seen any of these bees please send us a photo. If you are interested in finding out more, would like to see the historical distribution of these bumble bees, or would like to know how to identify them, please visit our website.

We are also interested in collecting information about bumble bee nesting habits. Please let us know if you have found one.

Students and teachers will gain hands on experience undertaking field work led by a team of experienced scientists from CSIRO. A comprehensive website is available (teachwild.org.au) to further student learning and to provide a unique, protected environment in which students and teachers can connect with other schools across the country to share their experiences. Also, students can continue their monitoring program without the assistance of our staff.

Your school will be provided with access to the Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network (ABIN) and our Teach Wild secure community space. This community space will be kept up to date with innovative information about marine debris.

The activities have been developed to ensure part of the key learning areas in Science, Maths and Geography in the Australian Curriculum are achieved for years 6‐12.

The Black Squirrel Project aims to gather data on the geographical range of the black squirrel within the United Kingdom.

Black squirrels originate from North America and are the same species as grey squirrels. The only difference is that they have a piece of DNA missing on a gene that produces pigment, which means they can only produce black fur.

You can make an important contribution to the project by submitting your own squirrel sightings (grey, black or red) and also learn more about the history and genetics of the black squirrel.

Mountain Watch is an ongoing trail-side citizen science program that tracks reproductive (flower/fruit development) plant phenology of a small set of alpine and forest plants In the Eastern Appalachian mountains and other Northeast areas. The program has had over 9,000 plant phenophase observations made by volunteers since 2005, and a similar number of observations made by trained staff. This citizen science program is one component of the alpine ecology and climate science research being conducted by the Appalachian Mountain Club in the Northeast mountains.

Bumble bees are important pollinators, and science needs YOUR help to conserve them. You can contribute to our knowledge of bumble bees and their lives all over the world. Your contribution will tell us about which bumble bees live where, the flowers they visit, and when they're active during the year.

The photo group is administered by Athena Rayne Anderson, a doctoral candidate in Ecology at the University of Georgia, and author of the website.

Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources needs your help to ensure that Greater Prairie Chickens remain in Iowa. All you have to do is submit your sightings.

Greater Praire Chickens were once abundant in central and eastern United States; however, their numbers have dwindled since the 1800s.

Project organizers are looking for information about how prairie chickens are distributed in Southern Iowa regions, including Adair, Madison, Adams, Union, Clarke, Taylor, Ringgold, Decatur and Wayne Counties.

The ruffed grouse is a forest species widely distributed across New York State. While some grouse are found in more mature forests, the greatest population densities are in younger-aged forests. These preferred habitats are declining as most of New York State's forests grow older, thus resulting in a decline in grouse numbers since the 1960s.

Turkey hunters in pursuit of that wary gobbler in the spring are ideally suited for monitoring ruffed grouse during the breeding season. The characteristic sound of a drumming male grouse is as much a part of the spring woods as yelping hens and gobbling toms.

DEC currently monitors grouse populations in the fall through the Cooperator Ruffed Grouse Hunting Log where hunters record the number of birds flushed per hour of hunting effort. The Ruffed Grouse Drumming Survey survey provides a harvest-independent index of grouse distribution and abundance during the critical breeding season in the spring.

The BTO's Nest Record Scheme (NRS) gathers vital information on the breeding success of Britain's birds by asking volunteers to find and follow the progress of individual birds' nests.

The data collected are used to produce trends in breeding performance, which help us to identify species that may be declining because of problems at the nesting stage. These trends are published on the BTO website and are updated every year. NRS data also allow us to measure the impacts of pressures such as climate change on bird productivity.

Anyone can be a nest recorder. Some people watch a single nest box in their back garden while others spend hundreds of hours finding and monitoring nests in the wider countryside.

Now's the time to set up your American Kestrel nest box! This bird's population is experiencing long-term declines in North America, and existing data are insufficient for understanding the causes. The American Kestrel Partnership is an international research network designed to generate data, models, and conservation plans for kestrel habitat and populations at large spatial scales. The Partnership unites the data-generating capacity of citizen scientists with the data-analysis expertise of professional scientists by promoting research collaboration among citizen scientists, universities, government agencies, conservation organizations, schools, and businesses. The Partnership also fosters long-term conservation values and appreciation of science by engaging the public with hands-on research experiences.

The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count (WMTC) is a citizen-science project designed to census the size of these winter colonies. As the name implies, it is conducted over a two-week period around the (American) Thanksgiving weekend in November by a large number of volunteers. The project is coordinated by several individuals including Dennis Frey (professor emeritus, Cal Poly) and Mia Monroe (National Parks Service & Coordinator of California Monarch Campaign, Xerces Society).

Partner with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to monitor turkeys in the wild. The DEC seeks wildlife lovers in every county to help them observe and count young male and female turkeys (also known as Jakes and Jennies) in August 2012. This survey sheds light on the interaction between weather, environment and flock vitality. It also helps determine fall hunting potential.

Count birds within a 15-foot area, anywhere in the Western states, for one hour on Thanksgiving Day; you decide the hour and the location.
Last year 431 counters in the eleven Western States and Alaska made 440 counts. They tallied 161 species of birds (plus a lot of mammals and other things, too). The top five species counted in these states were House Sparrow (1), Dark-eyed Junco (2), House Finch (3), Black-capped Chickadee (4) and European Starling (5). As predicted, the Pine Siskin dropped out of the top five last season, but should be more numerous this year. Participants should send in a report even if no birds were seen during the hour.

Harsh winter conditions significantly affect young turkeys. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeks wildlife lovers in every county to help them observe and count young male and female turkeys (also known as Jakes and Jennies), from January 2012 through March 2012.

N.H. Fish and Game's winter wild turkey flock survey invites you to help record sightings of wild turkey flocks in New Hampshire from January to mid-March each year. This effort helps biologists assess the impact of winter weather on our turkey population!

Creek Watch is an iPhone application created by IBM Research that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. We aggregate the data and share it with water control boards to help them track pollution and manage water resources. You can use the map on the left to explore the data that people have contributed, or see recent contributions as a table.

The Creek Watch App uses four pieces of data:

The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more pieces).
A picture of the waterway.

This data helps watershed groups, agencies and scientists track pollution, manage water resources, and plan environmental programs.

Creek Watch is a project developed at IBM Research - Almaden in consultation with the California State Water Resources Control Board's Clean Water Team.

The iPhone application is now available free on the iTunes store, so you can get started contributing data!

My Invasive allows the public to report sightings of invasive species. You can take a picture of the animal or plant and upload it along with details about the location of your sighting. Sightings are plotted on a map to help scientists track the geographical distributions of invasive species like Giant African Snails, weeds, and insects.

Wherever you are – anywhere in the world – contribute to science by taking a photo of a blank white piece of paper!

Photos are needed on the following dates:

September 17 and 18, 2011
September 23, 2011
November 6, 2011
December 12, 2011
February 4, 2012
March 20, 2012
May 5, 2012
June 20, 2012
August 6, 2012
September 22, 2012
November 5, 2012

Your photo will used to measure how much of the sun’s energy is reflected back from the Earth -- our planet's "albedo." It's one way scientists can monitor how much energy – and heat – is being absorbed by our planet. By contributing to the Albedo Project, you will be providing data that can be used to examine the similarities and differences of reflectivity around the world.

Should grassy surfaces have the same value in Brazil as in Norway? How does clay soil in the southeastern USA differ from sandy desert in the southwestern USA? Is there any difference in urban “hot spots” that can be attributed to latitude?

Individuals, schools, small and large groups can all use these data to help inform activities that are appropriate and effective for their communities. Whether it is maintaining the health of parks and green spaces, or legislating green building codes, there is something each can do. It is the hope of this project to present some of the actions taken, as well as follow their albedo records over time.

We are monitoring butterfly population responses to climate change in North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park. Please join our effort.

Subalpine meadows in these two National Parks are expected to shrink dramatically due to the effects of climate change, but as of now, the rate and magnitude of this change is unknown. Butterflies make ideal indicator species because they are particularly sensitive to climatic changes, and are relatively easy to identify in the field by scientists and volunteers alike. Trained participants will hike to scenic alpine meadows and help scientists identify and count butterflies along the way.

Help identify and catalog the trees in Philadelphia's urban forest! PhillyTreeMap is an open-source, web-based map database of trees in the greater 13-county 3-state Philadelphia region. The wiki-style database enables non-profits, government, volunteer organizations, and the general public to collaboratively create an accurate and informative inventory of the trees in their communities. The project was funded by a USDA Small Business Innovation Research Grant and is in support of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation's 30% tree canopy goal and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's "Plant One Million" campaign. As more trees are added to the database, PhillyTreeMap uses the iTree software from the USDA Forest Service to calculate the environmental impact of the region's urban forest. So get outside and add some trees!

You can help the fight against invasive species by tracking phenophases of invasives through the USA National Phenology Network’s Nature’s Notebook. We need observers to track species such as leafy spurge, purple loosestrife, and tamarisk-species designated as invasive by the USFS, USGS and NatureServe.

Invasive species have infested hundreds of millions of acres across the United States, causing widespread disruption to ecosystems and reducing biodiversity. The invasive species threat is one of the top priorities of the US Forest Service. Knowledge of invasive species phenology can assist managers to better control invasives and predict future spread. The purpose of the Track Invasive Species project is to monitor distribution and phenophases, or life cycle events, of invasive species across the US.

The Oklahoma Invasive Plant council needs Oklahoma residents to report data on invasive plants in their area.

Participants gather information about the invading species and its location, and then submit it on the project website.

By contributing, you can help the project facilitate management of invasive plants and protect the economic and natural resources of Oklahoma’s land and water.

MySwan is a citizen science project for people who love swans. Just record your black swan sighting on the interactive map, and you can make a valuable contribution to research on the behavior and movement of swans.

After you submit your sighting, you'll get an instant report about the swan, with interesting information about its history and recent movements.

BeeSpotter needs volunteers to go outside with a camera and capture quality pictures of bees.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are trying to better understand bee demographics in the state of Illinois, and they can't do it without your help. Your data will become part of a nationwide effort to gather baseline information on the population status of these insects.

BeeSpotter is a partnership between citizen scientists and the professional science community. The project is designed to educate the public about pollinators by engaging them in a data collection effort of importance to the nation.

Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) is an online, experimental reporting system for reporting and sharing the sightings of sick or dead wildlife.

Individual reports viewed together can lead to the detection and containment of wildlife disease outbreaks that may pose a health risk to people, domestic animals and other wildlife. For smart phone users, the HealthMap mobile phone application, Outbreaks Near Me, is also available. It captures the same information that the web-based WHER application collects and allows users to upload photos. WHER hopes to harness the power of the many eyes of the public to better detect wildlife disease phenomenon.

Additionally, WHER was developed by the Wildlife Data Integration Network (WDIN), a program of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in partnership with the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

FrogWatch USA Chapters are overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and are hosted and managed by zoos, aquariums, and like-minded organizations.

At a training session hosted by a local chapter, volunteers will learn to identify local frog and toad species by their calls during the breeding season and how to report their findings accurately. By mastering these skills, volunteers gain increased experience and control over asking and answering scientific questions which, in turn, augments science literacy, facilitates conservation action and stewardship, and increases knowledge of amphibians.

Educators and non profit groups can create and manage their own citizen science class activity or projects with easy to use free online tools.

Create a citizen science project in minutes and avoid costly development costs.

The Noxious Weeds Citizen Science Project needs volunteers to document the presence or absence of five noxious weeds along 700+ miles of Glacier National Park's hiking trails to determine the distribution and extent of noxious weeds invading the park.

Glacier National Park hosts over 1,000 different types of plants, but the unique native flora has serious competition. There are currently 126 exotic plant species within the park and although many of them are not invasive, the list does include 20 noxious weeds, or highly invasive plants that are a direct threat to the proliferation of native plant communities.

The Non-native Invasive Plant Citizen Science program assists park managers map where invasive plants exist in the back-country. The data gathered by citizen scientists throughout the park's million acres provides critical assistance in mapping these invasive plants and managing them.

Since 2005 the Glacier National Park Citizen Science program has enlisted trained park visitors, staff and volunteers to collect scientific information that would otherwise be unavailable to resource managers and researchers due to lack of personnel or funding. For citizen scientists, the rewards are a sense of stewardship and a greater awareness and understanding of the park’s resource issues. For the park, it provides a wealth of data which can be used to increase understanding of our natural resources, offering an opportunity to get much-needed baseline information about key plant and animal species.

The High Country Citizen Science Project needs volunteers to participate in back-country surveys to collect data on the number and distribution of mountain goats, pikas, and Clark's nutcrackers, three species of concern in the high country of Montana's Glacier National Park. This contribution will enable the park to more effectively manage these species and their habitats.

Concern about wildlife in Glacier’s alpine and sub-alpine areas is growing. High country habitats are highly vulnerable to impacts from climate change and invasions of insects and plant diseases. Mountain goat and pika population declines have been documented in areas outside of Glacier, and whitebark pine, a primary food source for Clark’s Nutcrackers that is declining rangewide, is clinging to existence in Glacier. Yet, little is known about the status of each of these wildlife species in Glacier.

Participants attend a one-day classroom and field-based education program. Participants learn about species identification, management concerns, and how to observe and document observations of each species. They also learn how to use field equipment such as spotting scopes, compasses, and global positioning system (GPS) units.

Since 2005, the Glacier National Park Citizen Science program has utilized trained park visitors, staff, and volunteers to collect scientific information that would otherwise be unavailable to resource managers and researchers due to lack of personnel or funding. For citizen scientists, the rewards are a sense of stewardship and a greater awareness and understanding of the park’s resource issues. For the park, it provides a wealth of data that can be used to increase understanding of our natural resources, offering an opportunity to get much-needed baseline information about key plant and animal species.

The Common Loon Citizen Science Project needs volunteers to conduct surveys at 45 high priority lakes in Glacier National Park to document presence of common loons and observations of breeding and nesting behaviors.

Common Loons are a Montana Species of Special Concern, and Glacier National Park harbors about 20 percent of Montana’s breeding pairs. Since 1988, data has been collected once every year during Loon Days. Analysis of these data indicate lower reproductive rates for pairs in the park compared to the rest of Montana. Finally, there is evidence that loons are adversely impacted by human disturbance at nest and nursery sites.

The Common Loon Citizen Science Project educates park staff and volunteers on successful identification and observation techniques when surveying for loons in hopes of increasing our understanding of this species. By improving accuracy of sightings and surveys and increasing coverage of lakes with loons throughout the nesting season, the project aims to gather season-long information to gain a better estimate of the health of Glacier National Park's loon population. The project will also use the data to begin to identify factors affecting nesting success.

Since 2005 the Glacier National Park Citizen Science program has enlisted trained park visitors, staff and volunteers to collect scientific information that would otherwise be unavailable to resource managers and researchers due to lack of personnel or funding. For citizen scientists, the rewards are a sense of stewardship and a greater awareness and understanding of the park’s resource issues. For the park, it provides a wealth of data which can be used to increase understanding of our natural resources, offering an opportunity to get much-needed baseline information about key plant and animal species.

CitSci.org is a platform that supports a variety of citizen science programs using a centralized database to store and deliver science data, with a focus on community based monitoring programs. This platform allows program coordinators to create their own projects and datasheets, manage members, define measurements, create analyses, and even write feedback forms.

Volunteers with the Birds in Forested Landscapes project observe and record forest-dwelling birds in North America to help scientists better understand the birds' habitat and conservation needs. As a volunteer, you will help answer the following questions:

1. How much habitat do different forest-dwelling bird species require for successful breeding?

2. How are habitat requirements affected by land uses, such as human development, forestry, and agriculture?

3. How do the habitat requirements of a species vary across its range?

Anyone who can or would like to learn to identify forest birds by sight and sound can become a volunteer. Birds in Forested Landscapes is an excellent project for birding groups, such as bird clubs and Audubon chapters, and works well with high school or college curricula.

After identifying a target species and an appropriate forest area to survey, you will conduct two visits, two weeks apart, to determine if the target species is present and to record any signs of breeding activity by playing recordings of bird songs and listening for responses from birds in your survey area.

The project runs from January to September every year.

The Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford is building a sound map of the world as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. We need your help!

We’re asking people across the world to use our new iOS app on their iPhones or iPads (or any recorder) to record short clips from different sound environments, or "soundscapes"--anything from the inside of a family car to a busy shopping centre. Then we ask volunteers to comment on their soundscapes and upload them to our virtual soundscape map.

Recordings and responses will be analyaed by acoustic scientists, and significant findings will be reported on this website.

Sound Around You aims to raise awareness of how our soundscape influences us, and could have far reaching implications for professions and social groups ranging from urban planners to house buyers.

The Great Lakes Worm Watch needs citizen scientists to conduct earthworm surveys in forests and other habitats anywhere in North America.

Earthworms are not native to the Great Lakes Region; they were all wiped out after the last glaciation. The current population, brought here by early Europeans, is slowly changing the face of our native forests, but very little is known about the distributions of earthworm and earthworm species across the region. While valuable, this type of information is labor-intensive, and it is difficult for researchers to get funding to do this kind of work. Citizen scientists can help.

There are several ways to get involved:

1. Document earthworm occurrences: This involves collecting and sending earthworm specimens with location information to Great Lakes Worm Watch. These specimens will be archived at the University of Minnesota, and the species and location information will be added to the project database.

2. Collect habitat data: Great Lakes Worm Watch would like data from all habitat types, especially natural ecosystems like forests, woodlands, and prairies. In addition, data from habitats dominated by human activity are also of value, such as farm fields, pastures, and parks. Depending on your level of interest and expertise, you can choose to conduct a general or detailed habitat survey. You can use the instructions and data sheets developed by the project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

3. Conduct soil surveys: In addition to earthworm and habitat data, Great Lakes Worm Watch is also interested in getting data about the soil conditions at sites in which you sampled for earthworms. You can use the instructions and data sheet developed by project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

Get started! Anyone can make a BIG difference when it comes to containing the spread of exotic earthworms!

The Bird Conservation Network Census needs citizen scientists to record bird distribution and abundance information for birds in the Chicago region.

Bird monitors can participate at different levels:

- If you have a special interest in a particular site, you can become a regular monitor at that site and keep a year-round watch on the birds that nest, winter, or migrate through that site.

- You may help track changes in nesting populations by conducting point count surveys during the breeding season.

- You may visit a site during the nesting season and record numbers and species of birds just as you would on a Christmas Count.

- If you do not have the time to become a regular site monitor, you can still contribute your sightings.

The Bird Conservation Network has created a set of standardized methods for studying the birds of the Chicago Wilderness region. These methods can serve a variety of research purposes while also allowing birders to participate at different levels of intensity. Participants commit to making five or more visits to the site each year with at least two of those visits coming during breeding season (June). Also, participants should be able to recognize Illinois birds by sight and sound. By general rule, a birder should have about at least three years of experience with field identification of birds in the Illinois area.

The goals of this study are to generate a general picture of bird distribution in the region, to collect data to assist land managers and conservation planners in decision making, and to create a database compatible with other types of habitat data being gathered in the region which can be used by researchers investigating specific ecosystem questions. If you are an avid birder at a Chicago Park District nature area, you are encouraged to become a bird monitor.

The Chicago Park District Butterfly Monitoring Program is a citizen-scientist project that monitors the health of butterfly populations in Chicago Park District nature areas.

Volunteers will:

- learn to identify common butterflies likely to be found in our park system

- conduct at least six site visits between June and early August

- spend 20 to 30 minutes walking the route during each visit

- submit data sheets at the end of the season, which are then added to the butterfly database

- attend a butterfly monitoring workshop held in the spring

Through analysis of the extensive database generated by citizen scientists, researchers are able to gain a greater knowledge of the butterfly species present in the Chicago park system. These results will assist land managers in more effective conservation of the city's butterflies.

Bird Atlas 2007-11 needs volunteers in the United Kingdom to help produce maps of distribution and relative abundance for all bird species that breed and winter in the area.

Bird atlases provide a fascinating periodic insight into the status of all of the bird species of an area. This project will allow researchers to assess changes in bird distributions since previous breeding atlases in 1970 and 1990, and since the last winter atlas of the early 1980s. Atlases have been immensely important for furthering bird knowledge and conservation, and Bird Atlas 2007-11 is destined to set the agenda for the next decades of ornithology in Britain and Ireland.

Fieldwork will span four winters and four breeding seasons, starting November 1, 2007, and concluding in 2011. There are two ways in which you can help:

1. Timed Tetrad Visits - record all the birds you see and hear in a 2km x 2km square. Visit for an hour or more in the winter and breeding season.

2. Roving Records - any bird, anytime, anywhere. If you see it, record it, and, the project coordinators will map it.

The Bird Atlas is a huge project that will synthesize millions of individual bird records. Don't miss this chance to make an important contribution.

Bird Ringing at the British Trust for Ornithology is a network of more than 2,500 trained and licensed volunteers in the United Kingdom that ring--or tag--more than 900,000 birds every year.

Bird ringing involves the fitting of small, uniquely numbered metal rings on the legs of birds. By identifying these birds as individuals, researchers can start to understand changes in the survival and movements of bird populations.

Bird ringers come in many types, from individuals working in urban areas to large groups working in a wide geographic area, and can start at any age. Though you definitely don’t need to be a bird expert to ring, it does help if you have some prior bird knowledge. Anyone who wants to participate in the project will need to gain field experience with a qualified trainer.

You’ll no doubt find that ringing is a very satisfying activity. Not only will you be adding to 100 years of data used directly by conservationists, but you will also enjoy the experience of seeing birds close up. Whether you want to train to ring birds in nest boxes, gardens, or a local gravel pit, your contribution is vital to the project's success.

Nest Record Scheme volunteers gather vital information on the productivity of the United Kingdom's birds, using simple, standardized techniques. Participants provide the evidence needed to confirm whether a species in decline is encountering problems at the nesting stage.

Nest recording is one of the simplest citizen science projects at the British Trust for Ornithology in which to participate. Data are analyzed annually, and the results are published in the
"Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside" report along with information on species’ abundance obtained through other British Trust for Ornithology monitoring schemes. Nest record data are also used to investigate the causes of species-specific trends in breeding success.

The project provides an ideal opportunity to participate in the conservation of Britain’s birds. Whether you can monitor a single garden nestbox or carry out a larger study, your records make a valuable contribution to the project.

This project needs volunteers to survey breeding bird populations in the United Kingdom. Join more than 3,000 participants who now survey more than 3,200 sites across the region and monitor the population changes of more than 100 bird species!

Breeding Bird Survey is the main source of population trend information about the United Kingdom’s common and widespread birds. Knowing to what extent bird populations are increasing or decreasing is fundamental to bird conservation, and the status of these populations is an important indicator of the health of the countryside.

Breeding Bird Survey is designed to be a quick, simple, and enjoyable birdwatching experience. Survey sites are randomly selected, 1-km (.6-mile) squares of land. Participants make just three visits to specially selected squares, the first to record habitat and to set up a suitable survey route and the second and third to record birds that are seen or heard while walking along the route. Participants do not need to be world-class birders to take part, but they should be able to identify common birds by sight and sound.

Join today -- all new volunteers receive a free CD of the songs and calls of more than 70 British bird species.

Volunteer birdwatchers with the Puget Sound Seabird Survey gather valuable data on wintering seabird populations in the Puget Sound. The project is organized by the Seattle Audubon Society.

During monthly winter surveys from October to April, volunteers identify and count birds from the Puget Sound shoreline using a protocol designed by leading seabird researchers. Volunteers count all species of coastal seabirds including geese, ducks, swans, loons, grebes, cormorants, gulls, terns, and alcids. These data will be used to create a snapshot of seabird density on more than three square miles of nearshore saltwater habitat.

Puget Sound Seabird Survey is the only land-based, multi-month survey in the central or south Puget Sound.

BeakGeek allows citizen scientists to share information about birds and bird sightings using freely available and simple social networking tools such as Twitter. BeakGeek adds value to the data created with these tools by providing map based visualizations and monitoring for terms such as "Rare Bird Alert".

The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project enlists citizen scientists to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat.

Developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, the project aims to better understand how and why monarch populations vary in time and space, with a focus on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season in North America.

As a volunteer, you can participate in two ways: You can commit to regularly monitoring a specific patch of milkweed or you can submit anecdotal observations. If you commit to regular monitoring, you'll conduct weekly monarch and milkweed surveys, measuring per plant densities of monarch eggs and larvae. You'll also be able to participate in more detailed optional activities, such as measuring parasitism rates and milkweed quality. Your contributions will aid in conserving monarchs and their threatened migratory phenomenon, and will advance our understanding of butterfly ecology in general.

In addition to contributing to an understanding of monarch biology, you'll gain hands-on experience in scientific research. Through this experience, we hope that your appreciation and understanding of monarchs, monarch habitat, and the scientific process are enhanced.

The Hudson River Estuary Program and Scenic Hudson are working with citizen scientists to monitor herring and American eel in Ulster County's Black Creek Preserve.

Herring volunteers will observe the creek to see if, where, and when spawning runs occur. Those interested in eels will use nets and trap devices to catch juvenile glass eels, which are counted, weighed, and released unharmed.

Data may help biologists discover why populations of these important fish are declining.

eBird is a free, real-time, online program that enlists birdwatchers to record the presence or absence of different bird species.

Participants record when, where, and how they went birding, then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. eBird shares the observations of birders with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists.

eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Importantly, it helps to increase our understanding of birds and our appreciation for the uniqueness of our planet's biodiversity.

Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL) is a citizen science project in which volunteers make and report cloud observations from sites of their choosing, such as a field trip, vacation, or even a backyard. The project aims to collect data on cloud type, height, cover, and related conditions from all over the world. Observations are sent to NASA for comparison to similar information obtained from satellite.

Many people take for granted how powerful clouds are in our atmosphere. It is clouds, in part, that affect the overall temperature and energy balance of the Earth. The more that scientists know about clouds, the more they will know about our Earth as a system. The S'COOL observations help validate satellite data and give a more complete picture of clouds in the atmosphere and their interactions with other parts of the integrated global Earth system. Citizens benefit from their participation in a real-world science experiment and from their access to a variety of background material. Educational materials for teachers are also available.

Known as the first and oldest Citizen Science project, at over 112 years, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is also one of the largest, with 60,000+ person-days of efforts and more than 60 million birds counted each year. The CBC has contributed greatly to the science of bird conservation with hundreds of publications, including many in important scientific journals. From December 14 through January 5 each year, tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition through the generations.

Count volunteers follow specified routes within a designated 15-mile diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. It’s not just a species tally—all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day. If observers live within a CBC circle, they may arrange in advance to count the birds at their feeders and submit those data to their compiler. All individual CBCs are conducted in the period from December 14 to January 5 (inclusive dates) each season, and each count is conducted in one calendar day (24-hour period).

The Great Sunflower Project uses data collected by citizen scientists to produce the first real map of the state of the bees.

Some bee populations have experienced severe declines that may affect food production. However, nobody has ever measured how much pollination is happening over a region, much less a continent, so there is little information about how a decline in the bee population can influence gardens.

The Great Sunflower Project makes it easy to gather this information. Plant a seed or two, spend 15 minutes watching your flowers for bee visits, and send in your data. You can make as many observations as you want while your flowers are in bloom. Plant, Watch, Enter. Repeat. That's it. And, who doesn't like sunflowers?!

Project Squirrel is calling all citizen scientists to count the number of squirrels in their neighborhoods and report their findings. The goal is to understand urban squirrel biology, including everything from squirrels to migratory birds, nocturnal mammals, and secretive reptiles and amphibians. To gain data on squirrel populations across the United States, citizen scientists will also be asked, when possible, to distinguish between two different types of tree squirrels - gray and fox.

Anyone can participate in Project Squirrel. No matter where you live, city or suburb, from the Midwest to the East Coast, Canada to California, if squirrels live in your neighborhood, you are encouraged to become a squirrel monitor.

The scientists at Project Squirrel will also use this project to understand the effect that participation in citizen science has on participants. By contributing to Project Squirrel and documenting your experience, you can provide valuable information that will eventually be used to recruit other citizen scientists.

Butterflies I've Seen allows you to keep track of all of your butterfly sightings.

Once your sightings are logged in the database, you can retrieve them by location, by date, or by species. You can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen, a "Life List," or you can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen at a particular location. At the same time, the sightings you enter provide important information that the North American Butterfly Association, the major butterfly conservation organization in North America, will use to help answer scientists' questions about butterfly distributions, abundance, and conservation.

Enjoy the site and the fact that your efforts are increasing our knowledge and helping butterfly conservation!