Monday, April 29, 2013

Phenology Day was a success!

Happy Week-After-Earth-Week!


Phenology Day Flyer
It has been an exciting few weeks here in Tucson at our USA National Phenology Network National Coordinating Office.  We hosted a celebratory first annual Phenology Day along our Tucson Phenology Trail!  The event highlighted all of our local partners who have established phenology walks at their sites and introduced our visitors to phenology research, phenology observations, and phenology community spirit!  And we even added a new partner at a local elementary school.  





Praying mantis egg case. Photo credit: A. Bassett
On Phenology Day we offered talks on a variety of topics. Beginning at the Pima 
Cottonwood time-series. Photo credit: I. Shiach
Extension Office's Tucson Village Farm we provided an overview of the day, of our Tucson Phenology Trail, and introduced participants to the walk at the site. Not only did we collect data on the plant species tagged, but we found some very cool insects as well.  A praying manits egg case on our mesquite was especially fun to see and show our younger participants.  

Our Biosphere2 volunteer, Ian Shiach (USA-NPN SNRE Graduate Student), showed visitors his master's research poplar plantation (under the direction of Dr. Dave Moore).  Data from the plantation will combine on-the-ground, camera, and satellite data to understand better what different types of phenology information can tell us and if the methods are correlated.  He shared a time lapse video from the plantation that was fascinating to watch, and makes you realize how much you are missing when you only look at your plants once a week or a month.

While no one made it out to our Tucson Audubon Society Mason Center site, we had some great staff and volunteers out there who hiked along the established phenology walk.  Alyssa Rosemartin (USA-NPN Assistant Director and IT Coordinator) and Jherime Kellermann (USA-NPN Technical Research Associate), two staff with a birding background, and Jim Guessman (Tucson Audubon weekly bird walk host) shared stories about bird phenology on location at the Mason Center.  


Mesquite Flower. Photo credit: P. Guertin
Volunteers and participants met at the Joseph Wood Krutch Garden, Campus Arboretum site, to learn about a
variety of research projects conducted by Arboretum members and students and learn about desert plan phenology.  Patty Guertin, USA-NPN Botanist, provided an overview of phenophases for the plants we've got tagged in the garden.  Many of them were blooming during this spring season.  
Cloned lilac project open flower. T. Crimmins

Lunchtime talks included an overview of the USA-NPN and its goals, presented by Jake Weltzin, our Executive Director, as well an overview of our lilac data from the cloned plants project presented by Outreach Coordinator Theresa Crimmins.  After collecting data in for a few years in Nature's Notebook we are able to visualize the "onset of spring" by tracking the leafing and flowering of lilacs across the country.   This slide to the right shows the date of first reported "yes" for registered lilacs in our National Phenology Database.  


Fact sheet. K. Welch
After lunch we met in one of our newest neighborhood associations, Rincon Heights, for a guided walk.  Kara Welch, entomology graduate student, along with Robert Orpet (entomology grad student), and Melody Peters (Rincon Heights Board Member and resident) shared their tagged plants with all of the participants.  Kara also created some insect phenology identification sheets (check it out, to the left!) to use in conjunction with the Nature's Notebook datasheets.  She is interested in learning more about the plant-pollinator interactions here in the desert and the Tucson Phenology Trail will offer a great place to gather data to answer her questions.  We also saw some great examples of the mesquite twig girdlers at a few of our trail sites.  The photo below shows an example, perhaps from last year, at the Pima Extension Office.  This is PROVEL-1.  





Mesquite twig girdle. Photo credit: A. Bassett
Phenology Day was a great way to connect all of our sites along the Tucson Phenology Trail and highlight the opportunities for collaboration.  Phenology is a great lens for teaching many things, and at the very least, provides a way for folks to connect to their environment and take a closer look at some of the things they might miss on a day-to-day basis.  I encourage you to think about not only setting up a phenology walk at a site that you visit frequently but also to partner with local organizations who share similar outreach and environmental education missions.  

If you'd like more information on what we did or how you can participate, send me an email!  

Friday, April 12, 2013

Phenology as a window to your world

Happy spring!  

It seems like things might be starting to look a lot less like winter out there, for most people anyway.  Others not so much...

I've just returned from two trips - Moscow, Idaho (Forest Owners Conference) and Wooster, Ohio (Ohio State University Phenology Garden Network Annual Update).  It was great to see some of my old east coast spring favorites starting to respond to warming temperatures.  Including:

Tulips! 
Crocus!
Hyacinth!
View from Coeur d'Alene boardwalk
Meeting with these two groups of folks reminds me how much I love working with volunteers.  Our conversations really inspired me to be connected with site-leaders who are interested in using phenology to answer some local science questions and ultimately share their collected data with our database.  

The Idaho Forest Owners Association conference was a great place to connect with people who are engaged with the natural world through their land.  We talked about how phenology can help tell the "story of your land", in much the same way Jefferson, Thoreau, Leopold did through their journals.   It was also fun to return to a group of foresters and landowners - I shared some of my favorite forest photos (from across the US) through the seasons. 

Phenology is actually the perfect experiential environmental education tool because observing it teaches so many critical life skills such as observing your place, understanding your role in a system, respect and appreciation for natural things and other people, and asking and answering questions.  I realized since I've been teaching about phenology, I am always looking at things through a "phenological lens", meaning I can see cycles in almost anything.  Paying attention to my surroundings is helpful in so many ways.  Because I can plan for what's next.  Having a "phenological awareness" can be helpful, even if you are not interested climate science. 

OARDC Secrest Arboretum
http://secrest.osu.edu
Visiting with the OSU Phenology Garden Network group was exciting because many of the volunteers have been collecting phenology data for 10 years! I love to learn about folks who have committed to long-term data collection because their information helps us to understand, not only how things change seasonally, but also how they may have changed through time.  Moving forward they'll begin storing some of their data in our Nature's Notebook program, which will be a great addition.  They'll be able to use some of the tools we offer and the broader USA-NPN network will benefit from a great, rich, dataset.  While I was in Wooster, Denise Ellsworth, the awesome OSU Pheno Coordinator, and Dan Herms, entomology professor and pheno-researcher were fabulous hosts!  I had a great tour of the Secrest Arboretum at their Ag research station and talked to a wonderful crew of folks.  The Arboretum is beautiful, despite being almost completely damaged a few years ago in a major tornado, has a history of research and outreach, and they have a really neat phenology gazebo on the grounds.  The entry to the gazebo are aligned with the sun rise and sun set and panels inside host an introduction to phenology.  

Ocotillo bloom, Spring 2013
Pima Extension Office
So as I get ready to begin the, seemingly never ending outdoor house chores, for this year I'm going to take out my Nature's Notebook iPhone app and document what's happening.  I've gotten pretty good at it so it really only takes a minute or two of time for each species.  Then, I'll be able to look back and tell the story of my tiny back yard.  I  might more keenly notice what is going on in my little ecosystem.  Maybe it will inspire me to keep up with everything.. or maybe it will make me want to just sit in my lounge chair and take it all in. 

Coming soon - The first annual Tucson Phenology Day on April 20th!  Celebrate Earth Day and Environmental Education week out on the trail looking at phenology!