Environmental Monitoring

Environmental Monitoring Overview
Environmental monitoring projects are great ways to get students involved with relevant, real-world projects that can enhance your classroom instruction. The information that students collect is used by citizens, scientists, and/or agencies to monitor environmental quality. Students gain ecological knowledge, learn about data collection, acquire observation skills, and utilize critical thinking skills. There are a variety of projects in which to involve your students.

LEAF's Forestry and Outdoor Education Specialist is working to build a school forest environmental monitoring network. This network of projects, partners, and schools forests will allow students and teachers to compare their school forests with others across the state. The data collected will help us better understand the natural resources that exist at school forests. Topics will include invasive species, types of forest, forest health, soils, flowering plants, deer browse, water quality, and other environmental parameters. Watch this website for exciting developments and opportunities to participate or contact Gretchen Marshall at Gretchen.Marshall@uwsp.edu

Garlic Mustard Monitoring

The first pilot project is the School Forest Garlic Mustard Monitoring Project funded by the DNR through its Citizen-Based Monitoring Partnership Program. This project is training teachers and their students to monitor their school forests for garlic mustard. Data is reported through the Wisconsin NatureMapping program. A training was held on May 7, 2005. Over 20 teachers participated in this training and, with their students, are now collecting and entering data. The data collected will provide a better understanding of the extent of garlic mustard invasion across the state and will document control efforts.

To see the garlic mustard data that has been entered, visit the Wisconsin NatureMapping program at www.wisnatmap.org. From the home page, select "Species Maps" and then "Species Mapper" from the next page. On the right side of the screen, use the drop down box to select garlic mustard and click the "update data" button. The map will display garlic mustard locations entered during the project. To get more information on specific location, select the "identify" circle at the top of the map and click on a garlic mustard location.

Garlic mustard is one of the most aggressive woodland invasive species. Within a few years it can completely dominate invaded areas and suppress other plants and limit tree and shrub regeneration. For information on identification, known (official) range of occurrence, and control methods, visit www.ipaw.org/invaders/garlic_mustard/gm.htm and http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/fact/garlic.htm

Here's a neat video that explains garlic mustard identification and control:
http://www.in-sitevideo.com/wff/garlicmustard.html

If you haven't been trained in the project, but locate garlic mustard on your school forest, I encourage you to collect a "voucher" (sample) specimen and complete the data sheet as completely as possible. Both the data sheet and specimen should be sent to me. I'll enter the information into the project and provide the specimen to the herbarium. This is especially important if you have a school forest that is not in the established range for garlic mustard (see above websites). Data Sheet (PDF) Data Sheet (MS Word)

Watch for additional trainings and opportunities to participate in this project in the future. If you are interested in participating, contact Gretchen at Gretchen.Marshall@uwsp.edu or 715-346-2633 for more information.

Wisconsin Worm Watch

In partnership with Wisconsin NatureMapping and Great Lakes Worm Watch, we have developed the Wisconsin Worm Watch Project to encourage teachers, students, and the general public to survey school forests for the impacts of exotic earth worms. By the way, did you know that all earthworms aren't native to the Great Lakes region? Research is emerging on how they are slowly changing the face of our forests, but very little is known about the distributions of earthworms across the region. This is where you come in! Trainings will be offered to get involved with the project. For more information about earthworms and monitoring efforts (including methods), visit the Great Lakes Worm Watch website at www.greatlakeswormwatch.org To see where project participants have surveyed for earthworms, visit http://wnm.mapping-online.com/wisnatmap/map.do Under "special projects" click "update". Funding to initiate this project was provided by the Wisconsin Citizen-Based Monitoring Partnership Program at http://wiatri.net/cbm/Partnership/

Statewide, National, and International Monitoring Projects

There are many great programs in which you could involve your students (many offer trainings). Below are some of the best.

Snow Spotter Network
http://www.weatherworksinc.com/snowspotters/welcome.htm
This is the 4th edition of the Weather Works Snow Spotter Network! This season they are looking for spotters from across the country to report snowfall totals! WeatherWorks uses many of YOUR reports to help with evaluating current conditions and creating a post-storm snow analysis of each event. Remember, there is no cost to join!

Journey North
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/
Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America.

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
http://www.mlmp.org/
The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project involves citizens in collecting data that will help to explain the distribution and abundance patterns of monarch butterflies in North America.

Project Feeder Watch
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/
Project Feeder Watch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. Citizens help scientists track movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.

Wisconsin Classroom Milkweed Monitoring Network
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/teacher/milkweedmonitoring.htm
The Wisconsin Classroom Milkweed Monitoring Network uses milkweed plants to detect ozone air pollution. Classrooms provide plant injury data to DNR's air management biomonitoring unit and receive direct results about local air quality.

Wisconsin NatureMapping
http://www.wisnatmap.org/
NatureMapping is a biodiversity survey program that allows citizens, school groups, and professionals to enter wildlife observations into a statewide database. The observations are then used for natural resource management, scientific studies and environmental education.

The World Wide Biome Project
http://www2.kpr.edu.on.ca/cdciw/biomes/
The World Wide Biome Project allows students to investigate the biome in which they live, publish their data on the World Wide Web, and compare their data with other biomes around the world.

Wisconsin’s Citizen Based Water Monitoring Project
http://watermonitoring.uwex.edu/index.html
The Citizen-based Water Monitoring Network of Wisconsin, provided by UW-Extension, offers citizens multiple opportunities to be part of the process of monitoring our state's lakes, rivers, and marshes.

Who’s Who of Citizen Monitoring in Wisconsin
http://wiatri.net/cbm/WhosWho/
The Who's Who of Citizen-based Monitoring in Wisconsin is a directory of citizen programs and organizations in Wisconsin that focus on the monitoring of natural resources. You can search by county to find on-going monitoring projects in your area.

Wisconsin’s Volunteer Carnivore Tracking Program
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/mammals/volunteer/
Because carnivores such as wolves, fisher, and bobcats are often secretive and occupy very large home ranges, it is difficult to monitor them by direct observation. The Wisconsin DNR relies on your observations of the number and location of tracks to help them estimate the abundance and distribution of carnivores.