Open to all Pennsylvania residents. Help us fill the data gap for Pennsylvania. If you have planted pollinator gardens, native gardens, are fighting invasives, or just want to know more about the species you live with, join us.

The school phenology trail will cover 9 of the 19 plants of the Tohono Chul Public Phenology Trail that have interesting phenophases during the school year, as well as 9 animals usually present during the school year that use the 9 plants. The school phenology tour is being paired with an existing Tohono Chul school tour called Clever Plants that focuses on plant adaptation to desert conditions. The addition of phenology content will extend the focus to climate change.

We are piloting the School Phenology Tour with the students in the Center for Academically Talented Student Program of Flowing Wells School District who will make phenology observations at Tohono Chul Park this spring. In Year 2, we would like to recruit other schools and refine the school phenology tour.

Our group formed a Sierra Club Grassroots Network Campaign Pollinator Plant Project team 3 years ago and we are very interested in pollinator protection. We plan to contribute to Nature’s Notebook while observing pollinators and the plants on which they rely. Our short and long term goal is to get more families and individuals outdoors into the woods to walk on the trails and enjoy nature.

We are the continuation of the tree spotting group originally organized by Lizzie Wolkovich at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. We are an unfunded group of about a dozen volunteers trained in the original program.

The Arnold Arboretum originally hosted two phenology programs, including the Native and Indicator Observation Program and the Tree Spotters program, organized by Dr. Lizzie Wolkovich and other researchers at Harvard University. These programs ran from 2016 until 2019, when Dr. Wolkovich departed Harvard University.

Since then, a dozen of the volunteers trained in the original program have continued the Tree Spotters Program, observing phenology of trees, reading and discussing relevant books and articles, Zooming with researchers in the field, sharing information about related activities, and setting up a webpage on Dr. Wolkovich’s temporal ecology lab website. In their words, "We have worked to keep the initial trees and shrubs tagged in the Arboretum, and have offered to guide anyone interested in this project. We not only recognize the value to collecting this data for research purposes, but have embraced our trees and shrubs as family members that we care about. Tree spotting has opened our eyes to the marvels of nature, awakening our concern and curiosity for all."

The Tree Spotters were awarded the USA-NPN's 2021 PhenoChampion, as an exemplary program that shows a dedicated group of volunteers can overcome challenges, maintain a critical long-term dataset, and create excitement in learning about phenology.   

Our nonprofit, the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation (TMPF), is in the process of restoring a decommissioned golf course back to its natural state as a wetland.  By tracking the phenology of plants and animals on the wetland over a span of several years, we hope to collect data that will aid management decisions for the restoration project. For example, knowing when invasive plants disperse seeds can help determine the ideal window for treatments such as mowing, herbicide, and hand removal.

We want to start using Nature's Notebook to track changes to plants and animals within the arboretum in order to engage and educate our visitors. Long-time staff and volunteers have noticed changes over the years, such as earlier blooms and earlier arrival of some animal species. Nature's Notebook will be a perfect tool to substantiate these anecdotal observations.

The UA SEEC Program aims to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics (STEAM) and social science among low-income and under-represented minority K-12 students in Title I schools within the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The SEEC program, part of the University of Arizona’s (UA) Community and School Garden Program (CSGP), gives TUSD students and teachers the resources and opportunity to connect with community scholars performing cutting-edge, ongoing environmental research through citizen science programs, community grants, guest lectures, training programs, and more. In order to have a successful program, it is pertinent to be able to connect students with the people and citizen science programs that can have tangible outcomes, concrete examples of place-based environmental knowledge, and sustainability. The SEEC Program will connect its students and teachers to the USA National Phenology Network (USANPN) and Nature's Notebook (NN) as a way for them to formally participate in citizen science projects, establish scientific questions, methods, and means of data collection, and analyze their results. The USA-NPN and NN will help the SEEC Program establish low-maintenance educational tools, long-term connections within a school system, accessible data, and local connections with their surrounding environment, which can result in increased interest, understanding, and commitment to the environment, STEAM, and social science fields for years to come. TUSD students, staff, and SEEC Program staff and interns are observing with Nature's Notebook.