Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
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.
Feature: Essential Tips for Collaborative Grant-Writing with Community Partners
Ryan Meyer, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, shares on Public Scholarship and Engagement to convey his advice and guidance on the particular challenges and struggles when writing grant proposals with partners outside of the university.
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.
New Report: CCS in Oregon Marine Reserves
Community and citizen science (CCS) has played a role in marine reserve monitoring throughout the State of Oregon for more than a decade.
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
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.
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.
