Acoustic Bat Monitoring

Citizen Science Center volunteers assist the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources with their Acoustic Bat Monitoring Program. Volunteers attend a training workshop during the spring where they learn how to use an AnaBat detector attached to a PDA (personal digital assistant) with GPS (global positioning system) to record bat calls. The bat detector translates the bats call "on the fly" to a frequency which humans can hear. In this way, volunteers can actually hear what a bat call sounds like!

Bat volunteers borrow the AnaBat detection system, dubbed the “Bat Monitoring Kit,” for 1-3 nights to conduct bat surveys of local parks, neighborhoods, lakes and trails. Sometimes volunteers survey areas of their choice and sometimes they are asked to survey specific sites. Once a volunteer selects a site to survey, they agree to survey that site three times during the season, once in April/May, once in June/July, and once in August/September. Each survey is between 1-3 hours (a minimum of 1 hour) long and can only be conducted on nights when the daytime temperature is >55 degrees F, there is no precipitation, and the wind speed is < 30 mph. Surveys begin a ½ hour after sunset. Bat monitoring volunteers of all ages are welcome to participate. Volunteers younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

BlueBird Restoration

For more iinformation regarding the efforts to bring back the Eastern Bluebird in Wisconsin, visit Bluebird Restoration Project at www.bluebirdrestorationproject.org

BioBlitzes

Porcupine spotted on the Thurman property, 2008.
Photo courtesy of Nick Aliota.

Wild Lakes Bioblitz
The Citizen Science Center and the Chippewa County Land Conservation Department partnered together to develop and pilot a protocol for conducting a modified BioBlitz on the John David Thurman Wildlife Area property, owned by Chippewa County. The study was conducted in 2008 and prior to the BioBlitz, very little was known about the flora and fauna on the site. The purpose of the BioBlitz was to determine a method in which staff and volunteers at the Citizen Science Center could conduct a rapid assessment of the organisms in the wildlife area. During the project, 18 volunteers contributed 208.25 hours to the project and collected data about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, terrestrial and aquatic plants, odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), bats, and worms. Download the report and have a look for yourself!

Volunteers conducting worm survey at Coon Fork State Natural Area, 2009.

Eau Claire Barrens BioBlitz
After the Wild Lakes BioBlitz, word caught on and Eau Claire County approached the Citizen Science Center in 2009 to conduct bioblitzes on two of their properties, the Coon Fork State Natural Area and the South Fork State Natural Area. Data from the bioblitzes on these two properties is still being collected and compiled. Download the report and read about the results!

Great Lakes Worm Watch

The Great Lakes Worm Watch project is coordinated by Dr. Cindy Hale at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The mission of the program is to increase public understanding and appreciation of the role of exotic earthworms in ecosystem change across the Great Lakes region. To learn more about earthworms, check out the Great Lakes Worm Watch website at http://greatlakeswormwatch.org.

Insect Projects

Mosquito Project
Did you know that some species of mosquito are found high in the tree canopy, while others prefer to stay closer to the ground (where we typically encounter them)? That's just one of the things student technicians learned during the summer of 2009 when the Citizen Science Center teamed up with UW-Stevens Point professor Jamee Hubbard to collect mosquito samples on Beaver Creek Reserve property. This project was part of a larger effort to document which species of mosquitoes are in Wisconsin and involved setting up mosquito traps near ground level and in the trees in several habitat types on the property. A group at UWSP's Treehaven Field Station in north-central Wisconsin also collected mosquitoes for the project.

Bee Project
The Bee Project is a volunteer driven initiative to learn more about which species of native bees are present in the Eau Claire area. This project was started by two Citizen Science Center volunteers, Patrick Dotson and Judy Schwarzmeier. Patrick is a honeybee keeper and has always been fascinated by native bees. Judy, an avid CSC volunteer, has a background in the sciences and is curious to learn more about bees herself. The two set off in 2009 to test out methodologies for capturing and identifying native bees. In 2010, they are hoping to refine some of their techniques and move the project forward to a new stage!

Lake Wissota Invertebrate Project
The abundance and diversity of invertebrates (insects, mollusks, crustaceans, worms etc.) play a fundamental role in the food web of an aquatic ecosystem. As part of an ongoing relationship with the Lake Wissota Improvement and Protection Association, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Xcel Energy, researchers and volunteers from the Beaver Creek Reserve Citizen Science Center are conducting a survey of the invertebrate community of Lake Wissota. The purpose of the current study is to determine how the reduction of winter drawdowns has affected the invertebrate community of Lake Wissota. This study will provide important information that will add to a growing body of research concerning the Lake Wissota ecosystem.

If you'd like to help with any of the insect projects, please contact the Citizen Science Center.

Wild Bird Monitoring & Conservation

There are five bird projects conducted through Beaver Creek Reserve:

• Bluebird Project
• MAPS (Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship)
• Bird Banding
• Saw-whet Owl banding
• Kestrel Project

Wisconsin NatureMapping

Volunteers and others interested in monitoring Wisconsin's wildlife, such as frogs, toads, salamanders, birds, and mammals, are encouraged to log on to www.wisnatmap.org and learn how to enter their sightings of these critters into an online map and database. These observations are then available for wildlife enthusiasts, teachers, students, and land managers throughout the state for general knowledge and research purposes!