Workshop: Using Community Science Apps to Study and Support Nature Near You

Conservation in Your Pocket: Using Community Science Apps to Study and Support Nature Near You

Saturday, February 24, 2024
10:00 AM – 11:45 AM
Effie Yeaw Nature Center
Register here

Learn how to use apps to support Citizen Science in Conservation Fellow, Sage Madden, and UC Davis graduate students studying a local songbird!

Please note: Because Effie Yeaw Nature Center is located in a county park, participants will need to pay a $7.00 parking fee. You can pay with a credit card at the entrance of the park via the pay station, or you can pay with cash only inside the Nature Center.

There are a handful of smartphone apps that every naturalist or nature lover ought to have in their pocket. These apps can aid in the documentation and identification of a variety of plants and animals, helping you grow your knowledge of the local environment or anywhere else in the world you might visit. Additionally, every observation made through these apps has the potential to contribute in meaningful ways to ecology research and conservation, including along the American River. In this workshop, UC Davis graduate students Sage Madden (Community and Citizen Science in Conservation Fellow) and Ian Haliburton will introduce you to the apps iNaturalist, eBird and Merlin. Sage and Ian are partnering with Sacramento County Regional Parks to study the nesting behaviors and success of the Black Phoebe, a native songbird species, in urban green spaces. They will demonstrate everything you need to know to start using these apps on your outdoor adventures, whether they be walks along the American River or cross-country roadtrips. Sage and Ian will also share their passion for community science, discussing some of the ways that the data generated by these apps really does help ongoing research–including their own!

By participating in this workshop, attendees will develop familiarity with iNaturalist, eBird and Merlin. They will learn to use these apps confidently to explore, document and identify features of the natural environment, especially plants and birds. They will learn how to help others use these apps, and they will learn how these apps are contributing to ecology research. The workshop will consist of 45 minutes indoors (during which Sage and Ian will give a brief presentation and help you set up the apps) followed by 45 minutes outdoors (trying out the apps’ features on the trails). Participants should try to download the apps in advance of the workshop as well as create user accounts.