Community Science - Phenology Mentoring
Phenology is the study of the timing and cyclical patterns of events in the natural world, including those related to the annual life cycles of plants. The OST x Cascade Volunteers phenology project will focus on the life cycles of vine maple, big leaf maple, Douglas-fir, common snowberry, and other native plants. These species are of interest to researchers at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, a partner of Oregon Season Tracker that is located here in the Willamette National Forest.
As a CV phenology volunteer, you will visit pre-selected sites and record the changes in phenology of pre-selected plants. At the beginning of the program, there will be one site on Hwy 20 and a second site on Hwy 126; more sites will be added as we get up to speed. Changes in the plants at each site need to be recorded by at least one volunteer every week. The amount of your participation can be as little as 2-3 hours per month.
If you are interested in becoming an approved CV phenology volunteer, your first step is to complete the online training. Self-scheduling is not available for the online phenology training activity. Requests to join this training go through a "pending sign-up" step to fill a limited number of slots. Once accepted for the online training, you will receive an email from Sarah Cameron, Oregon Season Tracker Coordinator at OSU Extension, with details on completing the online training.
Questions about this online training activity can be directed to Karol at karol@cascadevols.org .
