Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
Event: #iluvbugs City Nature Challenge BioBlitz
Saturday, April 27, 2024
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
UCD Arboretum Wyatt Deck
Register here
Feature: Spinning Salmon in California WaterBlog
Peggy Harte, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, and Abigail Ward, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, team up in California WaterBlog to share about the collaboration between scientists and schools in the Spinning Salmon in the Classroom project.
Project Update: Training Presents Drafted Environmental Education to Support Clear Lake Stewardship
Inspiration and next steps
In March, the UC Davis Center for
Community and Citizen Science and Center for Regional
Change facilitated a two-day training in Lakeport
with educators and partners from across the region as
part of the Caring for
Clear Lake project. The training is a milestone for the
two-year project, approved by Blue Ribbon Committee for the
Rehabilitation of Clear Lake and funded by the California Natural
Resources Agency.
Grant from CALFIRE for participatory modeling and mapping to plan for fire resilience in Tuolumne County
April 2024 will mark the start of a four-year CALFIRE grant to the Center, on science synthesis and decision support for community fire resilience. MV Eitzel (Center Researcher) will lead the effort, with Ryan Meyer (Center Executive Director), Emily Schlickman (UC Davis Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Design), and Craig Konklin (Tuolumne County Fire Safe Council).
Welcome Postdoctoral Scholar, Caroline Spurgin!
We’re excited to welcome Caroline Spurgin to the Center. Caroline is helping with data analysis for the Our Forests project. Read more from Caroline.
Fresh Faces
Welcoming Our New Interns
As we enter winter quarter, we are delighted to welcome both familiar faces and newcomers alike to the Center for Community and Citizen Science. This season always brings a buzz of excitement and anticipation and with the arrival of our new undergraduate interns, Elly Dai and Kelsey Farhit, we’re diving headfirst into another exciting chapter of collaboration and growth!
Spring Staff Sightings
Follow the Center's trainings, webinars, and presentations
Catch us if you can! Find our faculty, staff, and students at these events this spring.
Project Update: Connecting Classroom Content in Spinning Salmon Field Trips
“Bye, Spaghetti!” waved one high
schooler as a tiny Chinkook salmon, so named Spaghetti, swam out
of a plastic cup and into the murky Sacramento River.
Across the boat ramp at Riverbend Park in Oroville, students
said their farewells to the alevin in their own cups. This
was the last chance for students to get an up close of the fish
they spent raising in their classroom over the last 6 weeks.
FREE Training: Environmental Education for Clear Lake educators
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Saturday, March 30, 2024
8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Lake County Office of Education (Kesey Room), 1152 S Main St,
Lakeport
Register here
OPTIONAL March 29, 2024 (field day)
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Rodman Preserve
Workshop: Using Community Science Apps to Study and Support Nature Near You
February 24, 2024
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!
ECL290: A Course On Community And Citizen Science In Conservation
This 2-unit course will involve weekly discussion and exploration of community and citizen science (CCS) approaches and applications in conservation and related environmental topics. With an emphasis on practice, each session will focus on a different theme such as equity and justice, project design and implementation, participant and conservation benefits. Other topics will be identified and explored based on student interest, and students will also have an opportunity to develop ideas for CCS projects within their own research.
Collabinar: UC Berkeley Foodscape Mapping Project
March 7, 2024
Campus Foodscape Mapping as
Justice-Oriented Critical Pedagogy, Activist Research, and
Organizational Change
March 7, 2024
10:30 – 11:30 AM PST
Watch Recording
Project Update: Elementary Students Connected to Forest Managers through Data
After 4+ years of collaboration and
intensive project work, the Our Forests Project is entering a
phase of analysis, product development, and sharing with a wide
range of audiences. Our Forests is an NSF DRK-12-funded
Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) collaborative
project between our center and our community partner – Sierra
Streams Institute.
Farewell to Todd Harwell
Thank you and best wishes!
This fall we said goodbye to
postdoctoral scholar, Todd Harwell, as he moved into his new role
as Life Scientist at the US EPA. Todd joined our team two years
ago, jumping into our ongoing work on the role of community and
citizen science (CCS) in marine protected areas. Under Todd’s
leadership, this project has had direct impacts on California
policies that will guide monitoring of marine protected areas in
the coming decade, and generated a trove of data that is helping
us understand CCS in conservation in new ways.
Project Update: Back to the Matilija Dam
Discussion surrounding the removal of the 76 year old Matilija Dam started in the mid-1990’s, yet here we are today in 2023, and the Dam is still here. Initially constructed in 1947 for water supply and flood control, the dam is now considered non-functional due to structural deterioration and sediment accumulation. Classified in poor condition, the dam poses a significant impediment to species movement in Matilija Creek, notably impacting the federally-endangered Southern California Steelhead Trout.
Project Update: Visiting NatureBridge in Olympic National Park
A new research partnership
In early September, Alexandra and Heidi traveled to Washington State to visit NatureBridge, an environmental education campus in Olympic National Park. Supported by the Resource Legacy Fund, the visit aimed to explore the potential of a new research partnership between the Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCCS), NatureBridge, and scientists at NOAA around a youth community and citizen science (YCCS) project related to long-term monitoring of the removal the Elwha Dam.
Project Update: The Eggs Have Arrived! Spinning Salmon Year Three
Deepening our collaboration and community connections
The Center for Community and Citizen Science has been collaborating with a broad coalition of researchers working to understand the complex puzzle of Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) impacting California’s Central Valley salmon populations.
Heading to AGU?
Find us at the December 2023 conference
More than 25,000 attendees from
more than 100 countries will convene to explore how Science
Leads the Future at AGU 2023.
Calling all Clear Lake educators: Feedback needed on draft materials
Are you an educator working with youth in Lake County? Your skills and experience are needed!
The UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science and Center for Regional Change are drafting environmental education materials to support ongoing local efforts to improve the health of Clear Lake and its watershed.
New quarter, new faces
Welcoming Rebecca VanArnam
We’ve started this fall quarter welcoming returning students and new students alike. It’s always a busy and exciting time at the Center for Community and Citizen Science, and with the addition of our new graduate student, Rebecca VanArnam, we are hitting the ground running with classes and projects.
Get to know Rebecca:
