What is citizen science? It’s everyday people like you and me collecting data for scientific analysis. Just plain folks doing science. You do not have to have a PhD.
The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont is celebrating 50 years of connecting people to nature through classes, workshops, hikes and citizen science programs. People of all ages attend Tremont’s offerings. I especially like their monarch outings because of the wide range of ages out in the field looking for butterflies. I am only one of sixteen volunteer facilitators who take turns hosting the monarch activities.
Originally created by naturalist Wanda DeWaard in 1998, this monarch tagging initiative is one of Tremont’s most popular offerings under the direction of citizen science coordinator Erin Canter.
Monarch butterflies have become perhaps the most recognized butterfly in the world because of their herculean migration in eastern North America. At this time of the year all adult monarchs migrate from as far north as Southern Canada to the mountaintops of Mexico. This remarkable journey was discovered by Fred and Norma Urquhart, the original monarch citizen scientists who dedicated 30 years of their lives in the pursuit of the monarch mystery. Just where do they spend their winters? How was it figured out? By affixing small numbered tags to their wings to track their movements.
Why is this still being done? To greater delineate their exact migration routes.
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