April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 66

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAMS

One major project consists of more
than 30 years of osprey (pandion haliaetus) monitoring and banding and includes putting up more than 50 nest
platforms over 10 miles of the Patuxent River. Numerous Boy Scouts have
received Eagle Scout honors for assisting with the construction and placement of these nests. This long-term,
bird-banding project gives numerous
interns the opportunity to get " hands
on " with the birds, gain tremendous
experience working with nature and,
at the same time, help allay their fears
of nature or birds. Many students
have gone on from this experience to
work in environmental fields of study,
have gained a greater appreciation of
birds and learned the importance of
studying their populations. The famous naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson
once said, " Birds are the litmus paper
of the environment, " because they
are good indicators of environmental
change and degradation.
To date, as part of this long-term
monitoring project, we have banded
more than 1,100 juvenile and adult
ospreys at the Patuxent River Park
during the past 30 years and another
3,000 on the rest of the river. More

than 2,000 people of all ages in the
past five years have participated in
this program with extremely positive
results. Groups of up to 25 people
accompany Kearns on a specialized
program to learn about the biology of
the osprey and how to tag them safely.
Participants also learn the procedure
involved, what data is collected from
the birds and how it comes back to
the bander. The training usually starts
with the group gathered around a live
osprey camera that was installed 15
years ago at the park's visitor center
to monitor and learn about osprey
behavior. Then, participants go on the
pontoon boat and get to handle the
birds as part of the banding process.
This is always a highlight and, year after year, brings back people who have
great interest and enthusiasm. Program demand is high and the funds
generated from it are used to sustain
other programs and part-time staff.
Another major citizen science program we conduct is the restoration
and conservation of wild rice (zizania
aquatica) marshes on the Patuxent
River. Wild rice is one of the most important wetland plants in the Patuxent
River/Jug Bay ecosystem. This project

Seventh-grade middle school students from Prince George's County, Maryland, get
ready to plant rice plants they started from seed in the Patuxent River wetlands.
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began in 2000 with grant money from
the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), which was used to buy fencing to protect the wild rice and to hire
summer interns.
During the past 15 years, this program has grown to involve hundreds
of volunteers and students who receive
wild rice seeds to grow in their classrooms with special lights. In April and
May, they bring the seedlings back
to plant on-site in the Patuxent River
wetlands. These hundreds of students
get to have a first-hand experience in
chest waders working in the marsh,
learning about the importance of wild
rice in the ecosystem and its value to
wildlife and water quality. The college
interns, who work the entire summer,
get invaluable experience to add to
their résumés in a nationally recognized wetland restoration project that
is a great example of service and citizen science. This project has helped
many of them secure jobs in the environmental field.
The goal of these projects is to not
only restore the wetlands and habitats but also to provide extremely
useful, hands-on experience to as
many people as possible. More than
60 research interns have participated
in this program since it began and
hundreds, if not thousands, of other volunteers. Much of the work has
been published in science journals, in
cooperation with federal biologists,
and seen internationally.
Designing Your Own Citizen
Science Project
How do natural resource managers
meet the potential of citizen science?
When designing a project, it is important to include the data collectors in
the objectives. The data is important,
but the real treasure is the opportunity
to develop stewards for natural spaces,

April 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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