Hello and welcome to Spring 2018. Boulder is really excited about the opportunities for you to participate with Boulder, the natural world and your fellow community. I'm calling this the Citizen Science edition. April 14th, 2018 is Citizen Science Day and we are excited to share these great opportunities with you.
Introducing Superior Citizen Science
Superior Citizen Science (superiorcitsci.org) working to connect Researchers, Educators and Citizens
The Lake Superior Regional Citizen Science Collaborative (LSRCSC) seeks to identify citizen science efforts and opportunities in the western Lake Superior region in order to create an opportunity for communication and collaboration among researchers, educators and volunteers who want to engage in citizen science.
Educators: Looking to use or are using citizen science in your classroom?
City Nature Challenge 2018: Twin Ports April 27th-30th, 2018
You can make your City Nature Challenge as simple or as engaged as you wish. You can spend just a few minutes taking a picture or attend a pre-event training or take pictures multiple days of the event or do it all.
Where: Minnesota: Carlton, Cloquet, Duluth, Esko, Hermantown, Proctor, and Scanlon; Wisconsin: Superior
Enjoy a hands-on experience learning the protocols for numerous regional citizen science projects.
Format: Hands-on opportunities to work with multiple regional citizen science projects. Each project will have an hour long session and if you don’t want to attend them all you can pick the ones you want to attend. You can go canoeing, fishing, hiking, bird watching, wildflower walks in between sessions..
Current list of programs: Vernal pools, Earthworms, Water Quality, Dragonflies, Plankton
Starting this winter (2017-2018) and working with MN Power, volunteers investigated 130 Wood duck boxes that are located around the reservoir system (Whiteface, Boulder, Island, Fish and Rice). Volunteers visited as many of the sites as they could to assess the condition of the boxes. Unfortunately, many of the boxes are no longer standing and this spring-summer-fall we will be putting up 25+ more boxes. We will also be changing nest box bedding in the winter of 2019 and will start monitoring wood duck activity in the spring-summer of 2019 and for the next 5 seasons to help understand wood duck nesting populations within the reservoir system. The data will be entered into the national Cornell NestWatch study
This project will have many opportunities for you to get involved:
Spring 2018 The Northwood’s Vernal Pool Initiative was created to provide support for citizens to help locate, document and monitor vernal pools in the Great Lakes region. By discovering and sharing appreciation for these fascinating wetlands, we hope to preserve them, the ecological biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide.
Spring and summer 2018 Volunteers need to observe the blocks to see when bees are most active and what they build their nests out of. The blocks will be placed around the Boulder Lake ELC facility spring and summer of 2018.
Other ways to participate are anecdotal observations and observing bumble bees on assigned routes.
If you are interested in working with school groups in May and June let us know - boulder@d.umn.edu
Do you have ideas? Please call 218-721-3731 or email Boulder@d.umn.edu
Program Highlights
Hello all,
Please do not hesitate to reach out and share your thoughts and experiences as YOU are what keeps Boulder moving forward. You can contact me at <boulder@d.umn.edu> or 218-721-3731
See you at Boulder,
Ryan Hueffmeier
Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center (BLELC) was established in 1994 and features a strong and unique partnership of University of Minnesota Duluth’s College of Education and Human Service Professions, Minnesota Power, and Saint Louis County Land and Minerals Department.
