GOAL 5: expand program participation

We hope to recruit more volunteers and encourage more use of these resources by building support systems for network members. The long-term collection of large-scale biodiversity data offers a source for management agencies and scientists to discover trends and explore possible actions towards mitigation if populations are declining. Available on-line data can be used to help people discover the biodiversity in their area, develop educational materials for pre-school through grad-school, and can also draw in new volunteers. Our main goals are to increase recruitment of volunteers, especially under-represented groups, by directing website visitors to volunteer opportunities of which they may be unaware, or partnering with other organizations that can help us meet our goals. We will target under-served regions to recruit volunteers for new survey establishment (fill in data gaps). We will also develop materials to support volunteer programs (especially new ones) in recruiting and training volunteers, setting up survey networks, working with land owners, and managing data. Finally, we will expose the programs to management agencies and scientists to increase use of the data and exposure for each program.

This project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF award 1147049) to the University of Maryland and the Socio-environmental Synthesis Center.