Celebrating Citizen Science Day!

Did you know that this past Saturday, April 13th, was Citizen Science Day? If you are wondering what "citizen science" means, you are probably not alone. As a term, it is fairly new...however, as a practice, it has been around forever! Citizen science (also called community science) is the concept that members of the general public (non-scientists) can become more active and collectively aid the improvement of scientific knowledge and advancement!

You might be thinking...well, how does that work? The answer is simple; when paired with the right tools and resources (many of which can be downloaded as an app on your smartphone!), anyone with an interest in science can collect and share data with the press of a button. If enough people get involved, this data can be analyzed and as a whole, provide more information than perhaps any one professional would be able to collect on their own. In this way, you become a contributor who can now consider themselves a valuable player in the mission to understand our natural world.

Here at Bethpage State Park (BSP), one of my biggest goals as the park ecologist is to inspire our patrons to be more observant of wildlife and explore our various park habitats. When I heard that the New York Botanical Gardens (NYBG) was having a 2-day citizen science event, I felt it would be the perfect opportunity to learn how other local nature centers are engaging their community. I also knew it would give me the chance to open the conversation as to the ways Bethpage State Park might be accomplishing this as well!

The Friday before Citizen Science Day, NYBG actually kicked off their celebration with a panel of various speakers. This symposium was called "Nature at Your Doorstep". All the panelists that spoke that day, illuminated the ways that public participation is already a driving force in scientific research and discovery.

Carrie Seltzer, Ph.D., describes the simple steps one could take to become a citizen scientist with an easy-to-use app called  iNaturalist.

One topic discussed was iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a site that allows you to record any organism you observe and upload a picture to the database. Most importantly, iNaturalist connects you to a network of experts who can comment on your picture and even identify it! While being a wonderful learning tool for oneself, this site simultaneously helps scientists learn the timing and location of certain organisms throughout the habitats of the world. Other features on iNaturalist include the ability to connect with those right in your very community, who are hosting monitoring projects (similar to those we conduct at BSP)! If you are reading this now and do not already have an iNaturalist account, I recommend you check it out....especially if you are a golfer who enjoys snapping a wildlife picture while playing out on our courses. You can download the free app or register online from your computer, at www.iNaturalist.org.

On Citizen Science Day, NYBG hosted multiple tours and workshops which I also attended. These events, which were led by both outside organizations and on-site NYBG volunteers, described the ways citizen scientists play a pivotal role in local ecology projects. The first workshop I attended was Project Water DROP. I learned all about the Bronx River Alliance, and how they call on citizen scientists to help collect water samples. The data they collect is then used to enact political change and prevent further pollution of the Bronx River.

That day, along the river, we all became citizen scientists as we took part in a water sampling demonstration and filled out data sheets.


Right after, I participated in a birding event along one of NYBG trails. This monitoring session had a similar set up as Audubon's Climate Watch (a citizen science effort that BSP participates in every year on our Black Course).

Similar to NYBG, Bethpage State Park represents a green space for both resident and migratory birds. It is interesting to note that the bird species spotted on our various golf course habitats are the same urban birds that can be seen at NYBG!

Later that day, I also took a phenology tour. Our NYBG guide described the ways she tracks tree and flower blooms throughout the season. Her recordings are entered into a citizen science database called National Phenology Network. This tour was fascinating! It also gave me the opportunity to surprise everyone with information about how BSP uses rhododendrons and forsythia to track annual bluegrass weevils, a common turf grass pest on our golf courses.

Side note: Did you now that azaleas are now considered part of the rhododendron genus? They have been reclassified!

All in all, it appears our park shares a lot in common with NYBG; we have similar birds and pollinator habitats... even staff with the same ecological goals! Yet, while this is true, we still have a lot to learn from each other. Perhaps citizen science tools can bridge that gap? Maybe the best part about citizen science is that it is inclusive. It sure did feel that way this weekend! Personally, I find it incredibly powerful that we now live in a day and age where any individual, birder or golfer, can come together, share ideas and have their observations count as real data. 

The many outlets you can use to become a citizen scientist. Photo of a slide shown at NYBG's Nature At Your Doorstep Symposium.

Overall, I want people to realize that Bethpage State Park is an open classroom. Anyone who wants to, can walk right over to our picnic pollinator garden or look up in the trees and learn. Even better, this same person can take what they observe and tell others! I cannot reiterate this enough but NYBG and BSP are your green learning spaces! 

If you are looking for more ways to celebrate citizen science with us at Bethpage State Park, I implore you to reach out to me on any of our social media outlets and/or download some of the apps mentioned above! Its simple, its fun... and you can not only feel good about giving back to your scientific community but be an integral part of it as well.

As for those of you who do not live in the Bronx or Long Island...you can be a citizen scientist in your very own backyard. People like to say that "science is universal".  Well...if that's the case, we should all be celebrating it!

 Delphine Tseng (from Landseer Communications) and myself (Bethpage State Park's ecologist), loved all that we learned on Citizen Science Day at NYBG! Thank you to all those that organized the event and made it a great success! ~