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News & Upcoming Events

2018 Update: 

In response to recent queries concerning the current status of the California Phenology Project and how you can participate in phenological monitoring near your home, here are a few suggestions to help get you started:
 
The California Phenology Project is still very active, but we currently don’t have funding to support continued travel by staff members to conduct workshops around the state. Happily, we trained enough naturalists, educators, and volunteers at parks and reserves in California during the four-year funding period that we acheived the goal of setting up many sites (including seven national parks and about 10 private and public reserves and parks) where monitoring has been taken on by local docents, volunteers, and staff naturalists.  In addition, there are many ways to become involved on your own, to learn the basics of accurate phenological monitoring, to perfect your skills, to train others, to develop a local community of like-minded observers, and to upload (and to analyze) your observations of the phenological status of targeted taxa.  Here are some suggestions:
 
1) Contact the naturalists or volunteer coordinator(s) at the CPP partner site that’s closest to where you live.  If you can join them on some of their phenological monitoring outings, that would be a perfect way to see monitoring in action and to begin to do it yourself at your own preserve. Inspect the reserves and state parks where monitoring is currently occuring.  Are any of these reserves near to you?
 
If so, click on the appropriate location to reach their contact information and to see the list of species being monitored there.  If one of these species is of interest to you, click on the species' name and download the datasheets and species profile (using paper data sheets is unnecessary if you have downloaded the Nature's Notebook mobile application, available for free from the Google Play or Apple iTunes store). You can see the complete list of species being monitored as part of the CPP.
 
2) Read (and follow!) some of the instructions for phenological monitoring and for contributing your data to the USA-National Phenology database, available on the USA-NPN website (usannpn.org).  If any of your targeted species are the ones we’ve been monitoring as part of the CPP, you can download the data sheets and species profiles from the CPP website.
 
3) Become involved with the USA-NPN’s year-round Phenology Leaders group, which provides ongoing instruction, tips, on-line meetings, and support for people who share your interest in phenological monitoring.  The USA-NPN even offers a certificate-granting class each year, which several CPP participants have completed.  Contact the Education Coordinator at the USA-NPN office to learn more about this program
 
4) Download the Nature’s Notebook mobile application from the Google Play or Apple iTunes Store.  This will allow you to upload your field observations without using the paper datasheets mentioned above. You’ll need to create an account on-line to use Nature’s Notebook. Then, take a look at the “Nature’s Notebook Obervation Deck Refresher CourseYouTube video. There are other Webinar Videos available on the USA-NPN Channel as well.
 
5) Explore the USA-NPN educational materials for other activities to run at your nature preserve.  You won’t run out of ideas for infusing all of your field classes with phenological concepts and observations!

CPP capstone events

January 15-17, 2014 (Day/Time to be arranged): Research presentation at the California Native Plant Society meetings (San José, CA): "Phenological responses to climatic variation among California native plants: inter-annual and spatial patterns detected by the California Phenology Project", presented in the session on "California's Changing Climate: Conservation in an age of uncertainty", organized by Brian Anacker and Gordon Leppig.

January 14, 2014 (Wednesday): Full-day phenology training workshop at the California Native Plant Society meetings in San José, CA.

November 20, 2014 (Thursday):  Introduction to the California Phenology Project, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, California Native Plant Society Chapter Meeting.

September 13, 2014 (Saturday): Phenology Training Workshop for California Naturalists, Tejon Ranch.

August, 2014:  Ecological Society Meetings of America (Sacramento, CA), Poster: Phenological patterns along biogeographic gradients: a case study from the California Phenology Project, by S.J. Mazer, K. L. Gerst, E. R. Matthews, C. Brigham, and A. Evenden.

April 5, 2014 (Saturday): Phenology Training Workshop at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

April 5, 2014: Agenda for Phenology Training Workshop at Santa Monica Mountains NRA

April 9, 2014: Phenology Training Workshop in Crescent City, Redwood National and State Parks

April 10, 2014: Phenology Training Workshop in Arcata, Redwood National and State Parks

April 17-18, 2014: California Phenology Project Educator's Workshop: how to use phenology and community driven science in your education programs

April 18, 2014 (Friday evening): Introduction to the California Phenology Project: Tulare Co. Audubon Society -- UPDATED LOCATION

April 28, 2014 (Monday evening): The California Phenology Project: tracking the effects of climate change on California native plants

CPP in the news!

Article in the Bay Nature Magazine.

Check out this video about the CPP at John Muir National Historic Site.

See this online video created by Minnie Sagar

Article in the Martinez News-Gazette

Article in the Eureka Times-Standard newspaper

The Gardens of Alcatraz article on the CPP

National Parks Conservation Association article about the CPP

CPP past events

click here to see a list of past accomplishments and events

Subscribe to the local phenology leaders listserv

For the latest information about monitoring infrastructure and protocols, building phenology networks and partnerships, phenology education resources as well as CPP related information, subscribe to the local-phenology-leaders listserve. 

To subscribe to the local-phenology-leaders listserv, send an email to list@list.arizona.edu with the following in the subject of the message:

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