Citizen Science

Developing and engaging a citizenry dedicated to wilderness monitoring and stewardship.

This Summer --Volunteer for Conservation!

Photo by Ronni Flannery

The Wilderness Institute’s Citizen Science Program builds on a growing movement that engages citizen volunteers in monitoring the ecological and social aspects of our wildlands. Effective wilderness conservation requires better information about the spread of noxious weeds, air quality, recreational impacts, and changing wilderness character. Citizen volunteers can help monitor conditions and trends, detect early indicators of change, and provide information to managers.

We envision citizen volunteers as active in gathering data and participating in the process of using and interpreting that data. Citizens often have local knowledge of particular ecosystems and can help managers and scientists understand the broader social, economic, and political context of changes occurring in wilderness. Through citizen science, citizens can also build community capacity to use science to understand ecological change, and to engage public land managers on issues of wilderness management. Citizen science in wilderness provides an opportunity to broaden civic engagement in wilderness stewardship.

The Citizen Science Program includes:

Volunteer-powered Wilderness Character Monitoring

Through our citizen monitoring project, community volunteers monitor weed invasion, recreational impacts, and selected elements of wilderness character across designated Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas in Montana. Since 2005, community volunteers have helped survey trails through seven Wilderness and seven Wilderness Study Areas, generating baseline data that is being used to assess current, localized conditions and broader ecological, physical and social trends. Monitoring reports provide managers and citizens with critical information to inform stewardship activities and decision-making, protect native wildlife habitats, and help maintain quality recreational opportunities in these special places. Find out more about our citizen monitoring program here.

Invasive Species Mitigation

Field leaders and citizen volunteers mitigate the spread of invasive weeds in Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas through targeted hand-pulling and thorough inventories of weed infestations. Data collected exposes patterns and pathways of weed invasion and guides mitigation and restoration efforts. Outreach promotes public awareness of the impact invasive species have on the integrity of our public lands, and the role individuals can play in curbing this spread.

Community Involvement, Outreach, and Capacity-Building

The Wilderness Institute builds community capacity for involvement in public lands management by engaging community organizations and volunteer citizens in project planning, interpretation of results, and on-the-ground conservation and monitoring of Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas. The Institute also offers public presentations to advance discussions about citizen science and broaden the way communities, agencies, and individuals think about both science and civic engagement. Ultimately, we aspire to promote the health of our wilderness ecosystems by helping to build a local constituency invested in and connected to nearby public lands.

Wilderness Institute Monitoring Reports

Wilderness Institute Citizen Science in the News

WAG Tales, Winter 2013

UM's Greater Yellowstone Magazine, pg 76

ConserveMontana.org

Great Falls Tribune, July 12, 2012

Billings Gazette article, August 9, 2012

Montana Public Radio interview, June 16th, 2011

Billings Gazette article, July 14th, 2011

Bozeman Chronicle Op Ed, June 18th, 2011

TV News 2006, link to video