This new year, as you explore your favorite forest preserves, take a few moments to join the millions of people across the globe engaging in community science!
Community scientists have expanded the scope of discovery in the preserves by helping professional scientists collect large amounts of data, information researchers may not be able to gather otherwise. Participating in community science is a meaningful way to spend time outdoors, explore the forest preserves, and connect with nature while building a deeper appreciation of local plants and wildlife. And anyone can do it! It can be a fun family activity, a way to get students involved in project-based learning, or a chance for individuals to make a real contribution to real science.
You can join many community science projects simply by taking a picture and uploading it to an app like iNaturalist, eBird, or Budburst or a site like Journey North. With each, people can share what they’ve seen and where they’ve seen it and then have other contributors verify their findings.
For example, the Forest Preserve District maintains an iNaturalist project page that catalogs all the different organisms found within the boundaries of DuPage County’s forest preserves. Preserve visitors snap pictures of plants and animals, usually with their phones, and upload them to the site. If they can’t ID an image, the app will give it a shot. The “iNat” community then weighs in to positively identify subjects, making observations “research-grade” and valuable to professional scientists working to better understand and protect nature. To date, over 31,000 research-grade observations of over 3,600 different species have been added to the Forest Preserve District project. Some of the most common species observed are the red-tailed hawk, prairie trillium, common milkweed, and white-tailed deer, but community scientists occasionally add rare entries to the list.
In 2020, a visitor photographed an American red squirrel at Waterfall Glen, the first record of the species in a DuPage preserve. (Unlike fox and gray squirrels, from the top of the head to the tip of the tail, a red squirrel is only about 12 inches long.) A community scientist verified the discovery by adding his own geotagged red squirrel photograph to iNaturalist in winter 2023. This made the record research-grade and gave professional scientists a better understanding of how the small squirrel is expanding its range in the Chicagoland area.
In October 2023, a community scientist using iNaturalist documented a limpkin at Fullersburg Woods, the first recorded sighting in DuPage. Birdwatchers from across the region flocked to the forest preserve to watch the rare wading bird forage for snails in Salt Creek. Many of those birdwatchers also used the eBird app to add the limpkin to their personal checklists. Beyond helping people remember what they observed, eBird checklists also create large datasets that professional scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology analyze to develop range maps, migration projections, and population trends.
But community science isn’t just for grown-ups. In April 2022, elementary school students visiting Fullersburg Woods for a field trip used iNaturalist to help them identify bugs. Their picture of a soil centipede turned out to be the first record of the species Strigamia bothriopus in Illinois!
Some sightings are less celebrated but just as important. Projects on iNaturalist, for instance, are marking the spread of the invasive spotted lanternfly by verifying community scientists’ observations as research-grade, helping entomologists monitor how fast this invasive species is spreading. To date, this insect has not been identified in DuPage County, but its arrival is not ruled out.
At the Forest Preserve District, people can take community science to the next level by becoming volunteer monitors. District ecologists provide basic training prior to each monitoring season and can use the data monitors collect to make informed habitat management decisions.
Volunteer bird monitors, for instance, listen and look for birds off-trail during the breeding season. This can help Natural Resources crews know when to mow or use prescription fires without disturbing nesting species. Dragonfly and butterfly monitors learn how to identify and record different species so the District can see how populations respond to habitat changes. And rare plant and fungi monitors keep tabs on individual specimens of interest. For details on all monitoring programs, visit dupageforest.org/get-involved/volunteer and scroll down to Natural Resources.
This winter while you’re exploring the forest preserves, looking for wildlife, discovering plants, or taking photographs, consider how your observations can contribute to conservation science. You just might make the next important nature discovery!
