Public Outreach

One of the most inviting parts of this project’s citizen science piece is the minimal commitment of time. For people who have busy lives or can’t be somewhere at a certain time everyday or week, this project still allows them to be part of local conservation measures. The Volunteer Packet suggests surveying once per month, I was able to do more than they suggested, which is preferred as more data is better.

The user experience for the actual data collection is very simple. There is a map (shown below) that marks the locations of active nests. In the map below, the red dots denote the locations I surveyed. In addition to those I referenced the Volunteer Training Packet while looking for new signs of nesting but was unable to see any new nests in the area. After taking pictures and data from the nests I saw on trees already marked, I uploaded the information on the online form to be processed by the organization. The form has questions that are very general and some that are very specific if the volunteer wants to get very detailed. There is also an option to upload a picture as well. The project is not advertised well to the public, I really had to do some searching to find this organization.

This project does have a positive impact on conservation. People who are part of the project know the importance of the birds and why there are measures to track their locations. On some trees there is blue flagging tape that says that there are nests there and has the name of the project (this can be seen in on the Participation Journal page). However, there are several of the trees I surveyed that did not have the flagging tape. To improve outreach and education there could be more effort put into marking the trees with the organization’s information.

The goal of this project is to increase scientific understanding of the habits of the white terns as well as enhance public appreciation and understanding. From what I saw in the project, the focus is more on public outreach than on publishing scientific data. There are opportunities for talk and guided hikes to see white terns and opportunities to release rehabilitated birds. There is no information on scientific papers being published. The main goal of the organization is public outreach, which is done well if you are actively looking for information on white terns. However, I think improving the contribution to conservation overall in the form of scientific papers would improve the impact of the organization.