LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 14 it was the first known Eurasian water milfoil in there," said Greene. The detection spurred control efforts and the formation of an advocacy group. "They found it ear- ly and you know, it's a smaller pond, so a great success story over these past five, six years of working with them … it all started from a single individual," Greene said. Some projects, like CSL AP and Climate Watch, ideally require a volunteer commitment of several years. These programs, and many other community science projects in the park, provide volunteer training that ranges from a few hours to a half day, in a combination of online and in-person formats. But visitors and residents with less time can still make valuable contributions. "I think that's a great thing about these community science projects is that you can find something that you can scale to your time commitment," said APIPP's Greene. "They're flexible, which I think is…a key part of it. We spend a lot of time trying to think about, how can we get more people involved? And so a lot of this is trying to be able to reduce the barriers, try to make it easier." Paddlers with just one hour can participate in the NY Annual Loon Census, held each year on the third Satur- day in July. Ice fishers can submit a measurement of ice thick- ness to the Lake Ice Observation Network at the Paul Smith's College Adirondack Watershed Institute. Even just uploading a photo can contribute to scien- tific research. The iNaturalist app allows users to up- load pictures of plants or animals for identification. Data from the app have been used in over 6,000 pub- lications to date, according to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a clearinghouse for biodiversity data from multiple organizations. Birders can use the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird app to keep a record of their observations, while simultaneously contribut- ing to scholarly publications – over 1,180 to date, ac- cording to the eBird website. And participation is not limited to those who can paddle or hike to survey sites. Snell worked with a Climate Watch participant with limited mobility. "I helped them look for a drive- through survey site so they could stay in their car, open their windows, open their sunroof, turn on Merlin, and listen to the birds that are there. And they're just… charged up because otherwise they wouldn't be able to be included in something important like this. Or fun – it's fun," he said. Although community science data are important to scientists, coordinators of these programs stress that the benefits go beyond the research contributions. "They (volunteers) are collecting really important and really useful data for us, but they are also learning about the species and the ecosystems and the proj- ects, so that they become more informed, and they feel a sense of ownership that then they're going out and they're telling their neighbors, or their friends, or their kids, you know, why they're doing it," said Greene. CSL AP also aims to empower volunteers. "What we're most interested in is helping communities that are not only interested in collecting data, but also interested in taking next steps to actually do something with that data," said Onion. Community science projects take advantage of rou- tine, repeated observations that are multiplied over time and space. For many participants, they are an ex- tension of activities that they already enjoy doing. "I don't think I've seen anything…or done anything that is earth-shaking for me," said Snell of his Climate Watch observations. "You know birders, at least like myself, I'm not so tuned in that I've gotta drive 100 miles to see a specific weird bird. I just like being outside. I just like doing it. It's very, you know, settling to my brain," he said. I've noticed that there is a hemlock wooly adelgid sur- vey site available for adoption through APIPP, only half a mile from my home in Glens Falls. I, too, just like be- ing outside. I ski on those trails at least once a week… maybe I should take a little extra time and contribute some useful observations to science while I'm already out there. t Photo credit: Patrice Bouchard

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