Our Citizen Science Center collected a substantial amount of data about native wildlife in our area. The scope of monitoring in our nature preserve grew from four programs during the 2016 trial period to twelve this year. And the number of volunteer citizen scientists has grown as well.
We began with the ebird and the Calling Frog Survey then expanded our efforts, contributing to the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network and the Illinois Odonate Survey.
This year we also monitored singing insects, fish, crustaceans, worms, bats, and reptiles.
The citizen science movement is a significant one. The purpose is to gain greater knowledge of the abundance and distribution of various species.
This knowledge helps scientists, environmentalists and land managers in their conservation work. Some of our collected data feeds into area-wide citizen science efforts and from there to state and national ones. All of our data helps us learn about the health and return of our preserve's species, contributing to its viability.
Team leaders announce monitoring days and times close to the actual survey outings. You can ask to be put on the monitoring email list for the latest information by signing up under Education on the Contact Page.
For more information contact our Program and Education Chairman: [email protected].