Citizen Science and Wildlife Conservation: Lessons from 34 Years of the Maine Loon Count

Maine Policy Review, Nov 2017

Since the early 1980s—long before the term citizen science was widely adopted— Maine Audubon has engaged thousands of dedicated volunteers in myriad wildlife surveys and studies, from bat colony monitoring to spring amphibian surveys to loon counts. In this article, the authors describe some of those citizen science projects and use the longest-running program, the Maine Loon Project and its annual Loon Count, to showcase what it takes to run a successful program. They also review key lessons learned from these projects over the last three decades.

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Citizen Science and Wildlife Conservation: Lessons from 34 Years of the Maine Loon Count

MAINE POLICY REVIEW • Citizen Science and Wildlife Conser vation: Lessons from 34 Years of the Maine Loon Count Sally Stockwell - Citizen Science and Wildlife Conservation: Since the early 1980s—long before the term citizen science was widely adopted— Maine Audubon has engaged thousands of dedicated volunteers in myriad wildlife surveys and studies, from bat colony monitoring to spring amphibian surveys to loon counts. In this article, the authors describe some of those citizen science projects and use the longest-running program, the Maine Loon Project and its annual Loon Count, to showcase what it takes to run a successful program. They also review key lessons learned from these projects over the last three decades. MAINE AUDUBON AND CITIZEN SCIENCE Mners over more than three decades to develop and aine Audubon has worked with a variety of partlead numerous citizen science projects. Each addresses an important conservation need, and all collect information that helps conservation biologists, state and local governments, and citizens to take action to help conserve the target species and habitats. Importantly, they also engage volunteers in science, the outdoors, and activities that foster appreciation of wildlife and wildlife habitat throughout the state. Major Current and Recent Past Projects Bat maternal colony and audio surveys Maine Audubon worked with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) to develop a survey protocol for citizen scientists to estimate productivity of Maine’s bats. Unfortunately, due to the sudden onset of white nose syndrome in Maine, over 100 volunteers who were set to locate and survey colonies found mostly abandoned sites. Of the more than 40 colonies initially identified, only one showed production of bat pups. More recently, in 2015 and 2016, Maine Audubon worked with Erik Blomberg at the University of Maine on the BatME Project to recruit and train volunteers to survey bats throughout Maine using an innovative iPad audio-recording program (EchoMeter Touch, Wildlife Acoustics). The long-term goal of BatME, which is ongoing but currently lacks funding, is to document changes in occurrence and relative abundance of eight bat species across the state as a way of documenting the impacts of white nose syndrome and other sources of mortality on our native bat populations (Blomberg, Morano, and Mosby 2016) . Surveys of brook trout ponds and coastal streams Maine is the last stronghold for wild brook trout in the eastern United States. Pond and lake populations are intact in 185 subwatersheds (compared to only six total intact subwatersheds among the 16 other eastern states), and stream populations are intact in as many Maine subwatersheds as in all other eastern states combined (TU 2006) . Even so, some waters have not yet been surveyed, so volunteer anglers were recruited to find previously undocumented wild brook trout populations in remote ponds and coastal streams. After six years, volunteers have successfully surveyed more than 425 remote Maine ponds for which no data were previously available. In the three years since the Coastal Stream Survey was included, volunteers have successfully evaluated 137 coastal streams. Working with our primary partners of MDIFW and Trout Unlimited, these volunteers have donated over 7,990 hours to the project and found trout or signs of trout in 145 ponds and 65 streams (MA, MDIFW, and TU 2016) . The long-term goal of this project is to protect priority ponds by adding them to the State Heritage Fish Waters list, which does not allow stocking or the use of live fish as bait, and to develop new strategies for protecting sea-run brook trout in Maine’s coastal streams, ultimately ensuring the future success of the last, best remaining wild brook trout in the East. Wildlife road watch Roads and traffic can make it difficult or impossible for wildlife to move safely across the landscape. Wildlife populations may decline or become locally extinct as a result of vehicle collisions or the inability to move across different vital habitats during their life cycles. Wildlife movement has become even more important for population survival as habitats shift due to climate change and animals adapt by moving to find more suitable habitat. Additionally, vehicle collisions are an ongoing safety concern for Maine drivers. For this project, volunteers watch for and record wildlife (live or dead) on roads throughout the state to document wildlife movement and road mortality. Between July 2010 and December 2014, over 460 volunteers submitted more than 4,800 observations via a web-based reporting program. This includes 6,000 individual animals (60 percent dead on the road) and 153 different species (Charry 2015) . This project is in collaboration with the UC Davis Road Ecology Center and is a model for other states and countries around the world. Next year, we will be initiating a new program tracking turtle movement in an eff (...truncated)


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Sally Stockwell, Susan Gallo. Citizen Science and Wildlife Conservation: Lessons from 34 Years of the Maine Loon Count, Maine Policy Review, 2017, pp. 25-32, Volume 26, Issue 2,