Earth Week Day Five: Citizen Science
eel monitoring.jpg
During spring at Rye Nature Center, you can regularly spot staff members and volunteers craning their necks to peer up at leaf buds on trees or splashing in the Blind Brook with young glass eels cupped in their hands. But what for? They are gazing at the canopy of the forest and catching glass eels not just for fun (although spotting and catching these small, see-through fish after searching the water intently is quite fun), but to collect valuable data to be used by scientists and policymakers.
Rye Nature Center participates in multiple citizen science projects in which people around New York or throughout the United States work together to gather data and report their findings in order to crowdsource important biological information. Two of the most active citizen science projects at the Nature Center in the spring are phenological monitoring of certain trees in the forest and eel monitoring in the brook.
Participation in these citizen science projects is an excellent way to become finely attuned to the small details of the forest and brook while contributing to scientific research and advancement. Throughout April and May, staff and volunteers count, weigh, and release juvenile American eels that are caught in the fyke net spanning a section of the Blind Brook. This work is done through the DEC’s Hudson River Eel Project, and the data contribute to a better understanding of the American eel’s life cycle and natural history, and informs decisions on how to best protect these mysterious, far-traveling fish. The eels benefit from better protection, the Hudson River Eel Project receives plenty of data from sites around the Hudson River, and participants have the chance to become familiar with an animal they might never otherwise see, through hands-on work outdoors.
If eels are not your cup of tea, do not worry! With the recent boom in citizen science projects, you are bound to find a project to suit your interests and the habitats around you.
Which citizen science project would suit you?
Frogwatch USA
https://frogwatch.next.fieldscope.org/
If you live near a body of fresh water and enjoy listening to the croaking choruses of frogs during spring and summer evenings this could be the perfect opportunity for you to contribute to citizen science.
Project FeederWatch - https://feederwatch.org/
NestWatch -https://nestwatch.org/
Both through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, these efforts are great if you enjoy quietly watching the comings and goings of backyard birds or would like to improve your birding skills.
Project Budburst - https://budburst.org
USA National Phenology Network - https://www.usanpn.org
If you enjoy paying attention to the small seasonal changes of the flowers and trees in your yard or favorite nature site. FRNC has over 20 years of data on the trees on the property!
If you need more ideas for a local project to join, check out the project finder tool on scistarter.com (https://scistarter.org/finder).
To learn more about the Hudson River Eel Project, visit https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/49580.html.
If you would like to be involved in the ongoing citizen science projects at the Nature Center, please contact our Director of Conservation and Land Stewardship, Danny Molinaro, at dannymolinaro@ryenaturecenter.org.
