Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog

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M.V. Eitzel appointed Associate Professional Researcher at UC Davis Feminist Research Institute

We are pleased and proud to announce that Dr. Melissa (M.V.) Eitzel has been appointed as an Associate Professional Researcher at the UC Davis Feminist Research Institute. This career step is a fitting reflection of Eitzel’s high quality academic scholarship, as well as her deep commitment to collaboration. Eitzel first joined the Center for Community and Citizen Science as a postdoctoral researcher, and has since worked with us on a variety of projects, including MPA Watch data analysis, and dam removal and watershed restoration.

Blog entry Tali Caspi

CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Learning about coyotes in San Francisco from their scat

In recent decades, humans and animals have increasingly co-occurred in high densities in urban areas. Although declines in biodiversity are associated with urbanization, numerous species have adjusted to and thrive in cities. The success of urban animals is largely attributed to the expansion of their diet to include human-provided food, resulting in frequent conflicts with people. These conflicts have wide-ranging financial, health, and ecosystem-level consequences, necessitating a deeper understanding of organismal adaptation to human resources.

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City Nature Challenge 2024 Recap

Another City Nature Challenge is in the books! We love to see the iNaturalist participation across the Sacramento Region and share in the excitement of discovery. This year’s official results are:

7,218 observations 
1,602 species
686 observers

Post Jadda Miller

CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Cultivating Youth and Community Resiliency

A Community Science Approach to Land Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi

Project overview

In August of last year, I submitted a proposal to the Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship program. This collaborative project is titled “Cultivating Youth and Community Resiliency: A Community Science Approach to Land Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi”. Through this project, we seek to address a global environmental and social issue -wildfire- through a place-based, culturally responsive, and culturally sustaining, curriculum. 

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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.  

Post M.V. Eitzel Solera

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).

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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!

Blog entry Peggy Harte

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.

Blog entry Peggy Harte

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.

Blog entry Sage Madden, CCS in Conservation Fellow

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!
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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.

Blog entry Heidi Ballard Shulong Yan

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.

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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.

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