President's Podium | The Wildlife Society News

By Winifred B. Kessler

My president?s agenda includes an objective to inspire wildlife professionals to share their science widely and engage with the public.

One of the most effective ways to reach the broader public involves the increasingly popular medium of ?citizen science,? which the Canadian Section of TWS made the theme of its annual meeting in Canmore, Alberta, this past March. Increasing numbers of university researchers, wildlife management agencies, and non-profit organizations are using citizen science for the practical purpose of getting around limitations of research funding and personnel.

That said, it?s important to understand what citizen science is ? and isn?t ? and to learn from insights presented by speakers at the recent Canadian Section meeting.

The Audubon Society, a pioneer in citizen science, describes citizen science as engaging volunteers in the collection of ecological information. One of the earliest examples occurred in 1900, when ornithologist Frank Chapman, an Audubon officer, enlisted the public to help with the society?s first Christmas Bird Count, launched as a replacement for the traditional Christmas Side Hunt, in which people chose sides and went afield to compete in shooting the most birds and mammals. Another champion of citizen science, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, offers a simple working definition of citizen science as volunteers partnering with scientists to answer real-world questions.

Some citizen science projects aim to monitor wildlife abundance and distribution by compiling large data sets over many years and vast geographic areas. In these cases, volunteers are essential because more data is required than scientists can possibly get on their own. The Christmas Bird Count, Frogwatch Canada, Hummingbirds at Home, the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey, Bat Detective, the Great Backyard Bird Count, and the North American Bird Phenology Program are examples.

Other projects emphasize the educational value of involving citizens in science, often targeting youth. For example the Roadkill Project, based at the Road Ecology Center at the University of California at Davis, got its start in 1992 under the National Science Foundation?s EnvironNet Program with the objective of enhancing the effectiveness of science teachers.

In Washington State, Project CAT (Cougars and Teaching) started in 2000 as a unique collaboration of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Cle Elum/Roslyn School District, University of Washington, Central Washington University, and local residents. It integrated citizen participation and the K-12 curriculum into a research project seeking to improve understanding of cougar ecology, including interactions with humans.

Insights from Canada
At the Canadian Section meeting in March, presenters shared a variety of projects in which non-scientists serve a critical role in data collection. The subjects ranged from pikas in Banff National Park, to wolves and other carnivores in Wisconsin, to wolverines and beavers in Alberta, to butterflies in New England. Several presenters shared observations and findings on the effectiveness of using volunteers.

Greg Breed went a step further to address analytical approaches for improving accuracy and trend detection; for example, by adjusting for age-related hearing loss in bird observers. In a nod to technology, Mark Boyce described a ?moose app? that allows Alberta hunters to use their smart phones to systematically report their moose observations, modeled after a successful system used to monitor moose populations in Scandinavia.

Throughout the meeting, presentations and a panel discussion on the many aspects of citizen science provided the following take-home messages that are important to anybody considering a citizen science project:

The volunteer component of any citizen science project must be embedded in a research framework designed and overseen by scientists. Volunteers must be well trained in data collection procedures. The sampling protocols and procedures must be simple, and data quality should be assessed on a continuing basis. As speaker Bill Hunt emphasized, ?Citizen science must first be science.?

Putting volunteers to work on science projects is not the same as using trained staff. It represents a different type of relationship, and requires skills in volunteer management that will be new to most scientists. Those contemplating a citizen science project need to focus first on building their own skills and capabilities.

Because data quality has a positive relationship to experience, volunteer retention is very important. Volunteers tend to stay with a project when they feel that the work is interesting, meaningful, and enjoyable. Motivating volunteers and helping them feel like valued members of the research team are key strategies for retaining skilled and committed volunteers.

Understand that volunteers have their own reasons for participating in projects that may be very different from your own. This became clear in a presentation by Jane Wiedenhoeft on the volunteer wolf tracking program that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources began in 1995, when wolf numbers were low. The program grew as wolves increased in numbers and distribution, eventually resulting in their delisting and the opening of wolf hunting and trapping seasons. This reflects a real wildlife management success story, right? Not to some of the longest-serving and most effective volunteer trackers, who quit because ?they had joined the project to save wolves, not to help kill them.?

These discussions raised some thorny questions, such as, ?If citizens can do this work, what does that say about the need for trained biologists?? There was concern about ?rogue amateurs? who launch data-gathering projects in order to promote their own agendas concerning wildlife. You may be thinking, ?Not a problem; if the science is no good, they won?t get it published.? But apparently it is a problem: more than one presenter cited cases in which policymakers chose a finding they preferred over the one offered by scientists.

After much reflection, I conclude that properly-conducted citizen science is a very important strategy for building our knowledge base, increasing society?s understanding and appreciation of science, and engaging citizens in science-based conservation of wildlife and the natural world. It is an approach I am comfortable with. However, I reject the term ?citizen scientist,? which carries the notion that anybody can become a scientist by participating in data gathering, whether or not they possess research skills and mastery of the scientific method. It takes qualified scientists to do science?a point that we all need to promote as wildlife professionals and members of TWS.

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/the-wildlifer/the-wildlifer-2013-may/presidents-podium-6/

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