We are excited to ring in the summer with our fresh-off-the-press 10-year anniversary commemorative poster! The poster features a 4-panel design depicting the seasons and an observer documenting their data in Nature's Notebook. Read on to find out how you can get your hands on one.
We are pleased to announce a new award program that will recognize the efforts of our hundreds of Local Phenology Program (LPP) partners. The PhenoChampion Award will honor one of our LPPs that made exceptional progress toward meeting their program goals for data collection, education, and/or outreach in 2017. Learn more below!
We've created a poster to commemorate 10 years of the USA-NPN and data collection with
Nature's Notebook. The poster features four seasonal panels and an observer collecting data.
We will have several giveaways of the posters throughout the rest of this year, so keep an eye on our newsletters. If you are going to the
Ecological Society of America meeting in New Orleans, visit our USA-NPN booth for your own copy!
If you've visited our
Plants and Animals search page recently, you might notice a difference. We've recently made some improvements to make it easier to search for plants and animals on the
Nature's Notebook list by state, animal group and plant group. You can even search for species that are part of
Nature's Notebook campaigns.
Use phenology maps to support management decisions
A new article in the Journal of Extension describes how the USA-NPN's maps of accumulated growing degree days can be used to support management decisions.
Tracking phenology with the New York Phenology Project
The New York Phenology Project includes 30 monitoring sites across the state and annual logs over 10% of the data in the National Phenology Database. An article in
Scienceline describes the goals of the Project and includes a great video,
How do trees know when it's spring?
Are you attending the
Ecological Society of America meeting in New Orleans this August? We have a variety of USA-NPN actvities scheduled, including a
field trip to one of our Gulf Coast Phenology Trail sites, a USA-NPN booth where you can pick up a 10-year anniversary commemorative poster, as well as oral and poster presentations.
Photo: W.D. Bransford, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Recording phenological change after 40 years
In Grand Teton National Park, observers with Wildflower Watch are following in the footsteps of Dr. Frank Craighead, Jr., who collected data on flowering plants there in the 1970s. Researchers will compare modern observations to those of Craighead to discover how plants are (or are not) adapting. Guided phenology hikes are scheduled for each month this summer.
A new lesson plan from the USA-NPN's National Coordinating Office describes how to use the
Spring Indices as a tool to understand climate change impacts on plant and animal species. The lesson plan is appropriate for high school and college levels.
We are pleased to announce the inauguralLocal Phenology Program PhenoChampion Award! We seek to recognize the outstanding achievements of our Local Phenology Program Partners. The award program is open to any LPP that actively collected observational data using Nature's Notebook in 2017. The grand prize includes your choice of a customized trail sign or a Nature's Notebook gear package for your observers! Application packets are due September 4th.
Each newsletter this year, we will highlight one of our wonderful Local Phenology Programs. Do you want your LPP to be featured? Email [email protected]! This month we highlight the Rio Grande Phenology Trail.
The Rio Grande Phenology Trail was spreadheaded by the USA-NPN's pilot project with the USFWS's Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge back in 2014. Since then, the Trail has grown to include multiple partners from Santa Fe to Sevilleta NWR. The partners share goals of tracking changes in phenology of focal species such as the Rio Grande cottonwood and engaging community members and school groups in learning about the bosque, or river forest. Listen to Trail Coordinator Liz Douglass-Gallagher's great description of the Trail on Santa Fe's KSFR's Garden Journal radio show.
New tips for Local Phenology Leaders
Our new page contains a list of "tips" from seasoned Local Phenology Leaders using Nature's Notebook with students or volunteers. This information was realized and shared with the National Coordinating Office by on-the-ground leaders actively pursuing long-term phenology monitoring programs.
