les in North Carolina. Volunteers are needed to:
- walk small sections of beach each morning from May to August to look for turtle tracks and nests
All the data collected by the project are organized and disseminated to the state and federal agencies that use the information to make management decisions.
The North Carolina Sea Turtle Project, run by the state Wildlife Resources Commission's Division of Wildlife Management, is committed to monitoring North Carolina's sea turtle population. The project would not be possible without the help of hundreds of volunteers!
Mountain Watch: Adopt-A-Peak
Adopt-A-Peak volunteers agree to visit a peak or trail section in the Appalachian Mountains periodically during the growing season. Volunteers will help track long-term trends in plant flowering, fall foliage, and visibility conditions on the mountain they adopt.
Hikers are great resources for frequent reporting from remote areas that could not be observed otherwise. Adopt-A-Peak focuses our monitoring efforts on a specific location year after year. Volunteers are needed for forest and alpine flower monitoring from late May through August, but this effort intensifies in June, which is Flower Watch Month. Fall foliage monitoring can begin as early as September and go through the end of leaf drop.
Visibility is monitored on every visit by taking a photograph. Volunteers are encouraged to monitor both plants and visibility.
Individuals, school groups, outing clubs, flower groups: Adopt-A-Peak!
Mountain Watch: Visibility Reporting
By participating in Mountain Watch's Visibility Reporting, you become an important part of understanding how haze pollution affects mountain views and the recreational experience. Volunteers provide their opinion of whether visibility on a hike through the Appalachian Mountains, from Maine to Virginia, was "acceptable" or "unacceptable." These observations provide resource managers with information on the value of clear views to the hiking public.
Poor air quality in the eastern United States directly affects hikers and others who recreate outdoors. Haze pollution diminishes scenic views and can negatively affect respiratory and cardiovascular health.
Here is how you can help: Simply hike to your favorite vista along a trail in the Appalachian Mountains, take a photo from your viewpoint, and record your opinion of the view. Email your photo, and send in the data sheet.
It's that easy to contribute to real science that will help us understand how haze pollution affects mountain views.
Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET)
Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET) volunteers conduct beached bird surveys along the east coast of the United States in order to identify and record information about bird mortality. Volunteers examine the spatial pattern of bird carcass deposition and how it varies across time.
The project brings together interdisciplinary researchers and citizen scientists in a long-term collaborative effort to identify and mitigate threats to marine birds.
These surveys provide baseline information about bird mortality and help to detect mass mortality events such as oil spills, algal toxins, and disease outbreaks. Marine birds can serve as indicators of ecosystem and human health; monitoring the threats they face and their mortality patterns can teach us about the health of the marine environment.
This project relies heavily on a working partnership between concerned citizens with an incomparable understanding of local ecosystems and natural phenomena, and scientists with the training and knowledge to synthesize and verify the data generated by local residents. Through this synergistic relationship, scientists exponentially increase the amount and range of data they can access, and residents come to see the larger patterns and trends of which their local ecosystem is a part.
Chordoma Cancer Cell Lines Needed to Save Lives!
The mission of the Chordoma Foundation is to rapidly develop effective treatments and ultimately a cure for chordoma, while improving the diagnosis, treatment, and 