Welcome to a new thread where we will share information from the Citizen Science program at the Eno River State Park (in Durham NC, USA). For anyone unfamiliar with this program, please visit our web pages at

http://www.science-writing.org/citizenscience.html

Please use this forum to post your Google Earth maps (".kmz" files) of the invasive plant(s) that you have mapped. In your message, tell us who you are, when you mapped your data, and anything else that will help others to interpret your map.

I have attached a sample map that shows the distribution of the invasive shrub, Rosa multifora, along several trails in the center of the park in 2007.

Thanks, in advance, for your participation!

Julie Reynolds, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
julie.a.reynolds@duke.edu
(919) 681-6899

Julie:

This looks like a great program. The kudzu photo really helps get the message across about the invasive species problem.

Engaging citizens in doing research is a great way to promote science literacy. Programs that focus students and members of the general public on local environmental problems are especially motivating.

The following thread offers information about another citizen science program: Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology.

Here's a bit more about Rosa multiflora.



The mention of kudzu prompted me to link to this thread.

YIKES!!!
Source

Here is the work that we (DukeEngage interns) have done on the invasive tree species in the state park.

The following are mapped:

Tree of Heaven
Mimosa
Autumn Olive

Michael -- your GE file is great.

For people unfamiliar with this file, they might want to know that the pink icons represent Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), the purple icons are Silk Tree (also called Mimosa, Albizia julibrissin), and the white icons are Autumn Olive (Eleaganus umbellata). If you double-click on an icon you will see a photo of the tree at that location. If you right-click and then select "properties" you will see the exact location (latitude and longitude) and a description of the location.

Great work, guys!

The attached file has template waypoints for each of the invasive species we are mapping. If you open this file, you will have all the dots necessary for color coding your waypoints.

Here is the file for all the shrubs that we have been working on.

Color map:

Cyan - Chinese Privet
Green - Chinese Lespedeza
Yellow - Japanese Stiltgrass
Red - Multiflora Rose
Blue - Shrubby Lespedeza
Orange - Japanese Honeysuckle

Today was the first training session for Citizen Scientists, or "Plant Stalkers" as we have named them! I am uploading the data from our 5 GPS units so that the citizen scientists who participated today can see what their data look like. There will be five files -- each file's waypoints will have the first initial of the person who collected the data. This is just for fun so we can see some of the differences in our files. Since people were not all marking waypoints at the exact same locations, we don't expect all the waypoints to overlap. Let me know if you have any questions.

Here are the data from Kristin Vaughan's GPS (waypoints marked with a "K")

Your waypoints are marked with a "B"