Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog

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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.

Blog entry Ryan Meyer Becca VanArnam Jadda Miller

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.

Blog entry Heidi Ballard

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. 

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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.

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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:

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