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Community Science Investigators

If you’re a critter counter, garden geek, bird watcher, or nature nerd of any sort, read on! Starting in June 2019, Nearby Nature began hosting occasional Community Science Saturdays in local natural areas. Motivated by a desire to model that science is real, we have renamed our program Community Science Investigators and are making opportunities for our members and friends to engage in community science a whole new priority.

Every year, we will group our projects by season. In the summer, we will focus on insects. In the fall, we will switch to fungi. Winter is for bird study.  And in the spring, we will document the abundance of plant life that bursts into bloom as the sun reappears after months of rain. See our Events Calendar for on-going listings.

We are currently using iNaturalist as our platform for documenting observations through photography. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring a smartphone or camera to events they attend. Smartphone users should also load the iNaturalist app (https://www.inaturalist.org/) onto their phones.

Community Science Investigator events are designed for adult (and mature youth with an adult) participants and free for members and volunteers ($10 for non-members). Registration for individual events as well as membership is online. Families are invited to enjoy similar and more age-appropriate science activities through our Green Start Play Days and weekend Nature Quests.

Community members can also participate in Community Science Investigators year round by joining our Natural Neighbors project on iNaturalist! Through this project, people document the myriad of living things that inhabit the nearby natural world all over our community. We look forward to seeing what you discover! For a list of other projects that you might enjoy, click here.

New for 2025: Monday Monitors!

Nearby Nature is building a team of adult and mature younger people to regularly volunteer for various community science data collections around the Learnscape and in Alton Baker Park.  We will be using iNaturalist, Project Feederwatch and Nature’s Notebook to start with and building up to some collaborative climate science projects with other natural areas and their advocates.  If you are interested in this project, contact Wendy McKenzie at csi@nearbynature.org.

Thanks to former board member Holly Hartmann for hosting our intial events and for inspiring us to get this project up and running!

PAST COMMUNITY SCIENCE FUN!

Bioblitz 2019 Highlights

Nearby Nature’s first ever Bioblitz in April was a great success. To see a complete record of the observations we made in the Learnscape and Alton Baker Park (plus others before and since the Bioblitz), go to iNaturalist.org and search for the Nearby Nature Learnscape and Alton Baker Park Natural History projects under Community—Projects. Below are a few highlights from the day.

  • 35 volunteers helped, including a group from the UO’s Earth Day of Service program.
  • Over 200 species were observed in the Learnscape at the event.
  • New observations bumped up the Alton Baker Park project’s total to over 400 species.

Thanks so much to all who participated. We hope to make this an annual event!