Brian Mitchell wrote and submitted a proposal for an organized oral session at the August 2010 Ecological Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh. The session, titled "Citizen Science to Remote Sensing: Emerging Programs and Methods for Establishing Broad-Scale Phenological Monitoring," fits in with the meeting's theme, "Global Warming: The legacy of our past, the challenge of our future." Brian will be notified in December if the session is accepted.

The most recent member newsletter of The Wildlife Society described a phenology monitoring pilot project that NETN is participating in: "Wildlife Phenology Coordinator Abe Miller-Rushing is coordinating a pilot phenology monitoring program with the National Park Service in the Northeast. The pilot participants include the Northeast Temperate Inventory and Monitoring Network, and the Schoodic Education and Research Center, and five national parks--Acadia National Park, Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and Saugus Iron Works National Historical Park. In each of the participating parks, 5-20 volunteers (Volunteers In Parks, town residents, and teachers) and staff members (park rangers, volunteer coordinators, and research and learning center staff) are monitoring the phenologies of 3-6 plants and 3-6 animals. The group has developed monitoring protocols and supporting materials (e.g., datasheets and field identification sheets), and Miller-Rushing has led training sessions at three of the parks. The pilot will result in a plan for continuing and expanding the monitoring in the participating parks next year, and also recommendations for implementing phenology monitoring programs at other parks and refuges throughout the country."

Pilot phenology monitoring is now if full swing within NETN, thanks to a collaboration with the National Phenological Network, The Wildlife Society, and the State University of New York. Abe Miller-Rushing (thanks to funding from Acadia's LL Bean and Schoodic research grant program) is coordinating field testing of monitoring methods based on volunteer and staff observations at Acadia and Boston Harbor Islands. He also led a training at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP (MABI) to introduce staff from several parks to the procedures. Pilot monitoring will extend to Saratoga NHP, Weir Farm NHS, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, and the Appalachian NST next fiscal year. NETN and MABI are funding development of a phenology curriculum; the curriculum will be produced by teachers involved in the Forest for Every Classroom program.

Sarah Lupis, NETN's Science Communication Specialist, gave a presentation to approximately 30 teachers participating in a Forest for Every Classroom workshop. She introduced the teachers to opportunities for citizen science within the park service.

Brian Mitchell, NETN's Program Manager, helped lead an invasive species early detection workshop at Boston Harbor Islands. Volunteers and staff at the park are engaging in a full-scale pilot test of methods being developed collaboratively with the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network and Jenn Keefer of Pennsylvania State University.

NETN's forest monitoring protocol has been officially approved by the inventory and monitoring program. This protocol joins the network's lakes and streams protocol on our finalized protocol list. Two additional protocols--coastal and land birds--are in their final round of peer review.

NETN monitoring field work is in full swing! Coastal bird monitoring, land bird monitoring, forest health, and water monitoring are ongoing in most network parks. In addition, protocol development work this year includes rocky intertidal, wetlands, estuaries and salt marshes, and more.

Sarah Lupis, NETN's science communication specialist, has given updates about network programs to several network parks. She has spoken to park staff at Acadia, Boston Harbor Islands, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, Saint-Gaudens, and Saratoga. Don’t miss this chance to hear about who's "tweeting" in your park, or find out why you should clean your room, but not your forest--NETN parks should feel free to contact Sarah directly to schedule a site visit.

Sarah Lupis is working with Acadia Partners for Science and Learning to supervise two communication interns (Sara Delheimer and Hannah Kreitzer) who are adding to the burgeoning collection of resource briefs for NETN and Acadia projects.