Phenology Network Leaders
Agenda and Discussion Guide
1 hour discussion –via GoToMeeting
Meeting began – 10:05 am AZ time
Present on the call:
LoriAnne, Beth Bisson (Signs of the Seasons), Charles Hoy (NA Pawpaw growers), Sandy DeSimone (Audubon
California), Edessa Carr (Central Arizona Phenology Trail), Stacie Beute (Desert Botanic Garden)
Celebrate an achievement!
Name and share something you are excited about happening with your network over the last month!
 Sandy - Starr Ranch has had a few groups organically start and take off on their own.
 Stacie at Desert Botanic Garden – Started last year with a group of teens and is addeding a group of
adults this second year, spring of 2016 to roll out
 Beth Maine Audubon –Signs of the Seasons is looking to collaborate with Audubon Maine to monitor
common loons to provide existing loon monitoring volunteers long term opportunities Also, monitoring
rockweed up and down the cost of – they developed a parallel program, with new protocols and the vols
are entering data for both rockweed and Nature’s Notebook.
 Charles reported that the pawpaw growers hosted a meeting to obtain additional buy in on the concept of
pawpaw phenology monitoring – phenophase obs and a multi-year varietal study with NN. This started
discussions with KY State U, which has the only funded pawpaw research being done in the US. The PI
from KY State wants to participate in the monitoring program. He has existing data to potentially import
after we look at the protocols. Int’l meeting in 2016 in Sept at KY state. Will have an opp to expose the
int’l community with phenol network.
 Edessa from Central AZ Pheno Trail – Hosted 3 workshops in the last month. Monday of this week they
had the first real training outside on two of the trails; about a dozen people attended the workshop.
Looking at the species and helped them gain confidence in understanding the pheophases. Everyone was
excited about looking at the plants in a different way. Two botanists said they had never looked at plants
this way before! Organic group, ground floor, even those who are knowledgeable are in a learning phase
and they are doing it together. 2 ½ weeks has made a huge difference. People are very encouraged.
Announcements:

Creation of landing page for this group

Link to the new For Groups Menu on the Nature’s Notebook page
General business:
 Name of this group – Phenology Network Leaders? Coordinators?
 To differentiate between Local Phenology Leaders, who lead one site
 From Esperanza: I was thinking that regional phenology coordinators says clearly who we are. Since we
have a regional network in the NE (albeit nonfunctioning at this time), it might be confusing to add
network to the title. Just off the top of my head. :)
 Let’s go with Coordinator – leading and organizing the sites well describes what we are doing

Confirm first Friday as the standing date for this call. Next call will be June 26th at 10 am Pacific/AZ, 11 am
Mountain, noon central, and 1pm eastern. Join if you can.
Discussion Topic: Recruitment and Retention of Sites and Volunteers

Stacie – Phoenix Phenology Trail/Project (Central Arizona Conservation Alliance Coordinator, too).
Been working towards this for 4 or 5 years in fits and starts. The goal of the trail is to find ways to
The USA National Phenology Network | National Coordinating Office
1955 East 6th Street, Tucson, AZ 85721 | Phone: 520-622-0363
[email protected] | www.usanpn.org/education





align efforts of organizations around mountains/preserves in Phx, produce useable data. Urban
interface, science partners are interested in flower phenology in relation to climate change. Great
network (22 parks) that has the pieces that could inform the monitoring effort. Initially thought that it
would be easy to draw off of expertise and volunteers- in theory is good but discovered in practice it
hard to obtain ownership from land management partners. Recruit site owners – hung up on this so
decided to try a proof of concept piece at DBG (fits with their mission too, climate change effects on
it), since Stacie also works there. Huge volunteer base already exists, they are really anxious to get
involved with research b/c it was a new thing. Sustaining the participation (2 day training, extended 1
day) ½ half is the science of phenology to come at it a scientific way. Wanting to have data collected
twice a week, using CPP as a model. However this is asking a lot of the volunteers, and is a model that
won’t work at some of the parks. Need to think about how to get an average visitor to participate.
Right now they have 50 trained volunteers, 15 regularly participating. Successfully created a buddy
system and keeping it loose, let them set their guidelines, seems to be working. Sharing the data with
them is critical. Having the different options for participation is also really helpful (app, datat sheet).
Beth - Data visualization tool helps. Sharing graphs of participation though time has also helped. Each
cohort, starts strong and then dwindles. Challenge: pour tons of energy into getting new recruits each
time with limited staff time makes it hard to balance out the energy and bring new volunteers on,
geographically spread out. Instead also offer webinars, events, hikes, promote the webinars that NPN
does. Would help to have targeted regional webinars for each group RE what the data tell us. Vols
tend to be retirees. Teachers and students (but most are older or partially retired or fully retired).
Technology can be a barrier, though it is changing. App is helpful b/c it eliminates the step of
transferring the data from sheet to computer – often causes them to lose steam with the data entry
itself.
Sandy –Strengths working with volunteer group like Audubon – they have their own methods for
recruitment (although in CA they call it volunteer science not citizen science b/c of immigration). Pilot
in person training in SoCal. Bay area training done by webex seemed to be well received. Lots of
retirees who were able to do it online.
Charles- not hard to recruit his teachers but the time of year may have prevented teachers from
jumping right in since it was testing season. Interest is there for after school programs, middle school
level, who are often looking for structured activities. Training piece needs to be done. Encouraged to
know that webex works well. Also geographically challenged since he is covering multiple states. Beth
says that a lot of teachers tend to be extremely highly motivated. Maine cit sci teacher workshops
often have the same folks participating in more than one opp. Those are the people who follow
through. Have those people bring on other members at their schools. Work with Extensions like 4-H
or other environmental monitoring groups who are working with teaches, provided structure working
with other orgs. Aligning with standards and most effective groups have taken programmatic
approach.
Edessa – for training: how much classroom training time (intro, details on how to use – first two) vs
on the trail time. Stacie – initial thoughts are that those are the right amounts of training. People not
feeling confident enough to start is definitely an issue. She set up a series of “clinics” on a given pair
of species (wed ocotillo, palo verde). A week later do something else and therefore are walking them
through how to do the observations. Scientific training makes them feel like it is ok to write it down.
The right amount of training is how ever much training the group needs to feel comfortable, stay on
top of it. Clinics were really helpful – in the field on the tagged plants. Doing them throughout the
year, then as the plants change they are all there to see it. Change is what they want to capture.
Stacie has a log taped on her door, initial what they monitor that day. Could also tie in ethnobotany,
adaptation to the desert, etc. Any little anecdotal info she knows she shares, like on an interpretive
walk. Make it local. Asking volunteers to help pick species to monitor can help volunteer engagement
too.
Edessa - Other ways that people might be interested in a particular species – not just science but
cultural importance, ethnobotany. Host a “focus session” aside from clinic (focused on the plant).
Finding ways to fascinate people – learning more detail is what they are after. Stories about plants,
2

dioecious are male and female plants responding to the environment differently. Layered approaches
are best. Eventually you may have someone bubble up who wants to take control.
Stacie - hard to talk about climate change with some audiences – find another frame for it, urban
heat island. Use this project to remind people about how science works. More data is needed. “Let’s
find out” approach. This is how science works. Need to keep seeking answers.
PRO-TIPS
 Could take 3 or 4 years to have a regular group of volunteers interested in monitoring
 Utilize a volunteer coordinator, if you can, or hire someone to help. Maybe one of the volunteers will
be interested enough to help with the organization piece, especially if they see how important it is
that data are collected for the organization they like to volunteer for.
 Let people know ahead of time what they are signing up for
 Specific type of person that will be interested in being engaged
 Create a buddy system. Keep it loose, let them set their guidelines. Create a schedule, let them know
that they don’t all have to go out each week. Low-fi works, too, with a checklist on a board of what
was observed yesterday and what needs to be observed today.
 PATIENCE for program planning and monitoring phenology
 Potlucks for groups
 Sharing the data with them is critical. Locally focused
 Use webex for training to get people stared.
 1/3 of your trainees will stick with it each time. 30%!!
 Allowing volunteers to pick species can help engagement too, set learning opportunities for group,
not just related to phenology but the species and the ecosystem too.
o Pick core group of species to start with and then ask the group to help pick other species of
interest, maybe culturally important, ethno botany, etc.
 Must have shared ownership of the project among partner groups, or it won’t go
 Re-inspiration from time to time
Meeting adjourned at 11:30am AZ time
3