The Initiatives

Bugs, birds and bees need you!

Our world’s pollinators help to create the world's flora - from seed to bloom. Essential crops like soybeans and alfalfa also rely on pollinators to help them complete their biological needs – to “move” their plant parts from one location to another and complete their reproduction. Thanks to bugs, birds and bees, humans enjoy everything from chocolate and coffee, to apples and raspberries, to exotic orchids and even aquatic forests.

In fact, about 80% of the world’s plants rely on pollinators. So let’s give them a helping hand! By choosing to participate in the Pollinator projects, you'll be observing the lifecycle of the plants that pollinators depend on, and vice versa.

To find the Calibration Plants for Pollinators in your area, enter your zip code below. If you’d like to observe the actual bugs, check out the The Great Sunflower Project.

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Calibration Plants: Pollinators

These are a few of the plants scientific researchers are asking us to observe in your area. You can choose one or more of these Calibration Plants to observe for your Pollinators project (a number of these plants are found in the same area as each other).

See all Calibration Plants for Pollinators | See all Calibration Plants for Citizen Science

Pollen and allergens – the good, the bad and the ugly.

One in five people suffer from respiratory allergies in the U.S. - and that percentage is increasing each year. When pollen is released, large swatches of the population have severe reactions all at once. It's especially important for community resources and public health planning to be able to anticipate critical moments like these, and early allergy warnings can help. That's what this initiative is all about.

Wouldn’t it be great to know more about this year's outbreak ahead of time? Especially in your neighborhood?

If you (or someone you know) is an allergy sufferer - whether for hay fever, rhinitis, or other pollen allergies - Allergy Agents projects are for you!

Calibration Plants: Allergy Agents

These are a few of the plants important to observe. You can choose one or more of these Calibration Plants - depending on what grows in your area - for your Allergy Agents project.

See all Calibration Plants for Allergy Agents | See all Calibration Plants for Citizen Science

Plants and animals are Nature's storytellers

Climate and seasonal patterns: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Local plants and animals always tell the true story. America’s first naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, wrote about the relationships of nature at Walden Pond 150 years ago. This discipline of observation - phenology - is what naturalists and farmers have practiced ever since, as they respond to changes in local climate that affect their livelihoods, families and communities.

The Season Spotting initiative will show you how to monitor Calibration Plants - plants that tell the tale of the health of your local environment. By helping to ensure that local natural systems are as healthy as they can be, you can help protect the things that matter.

Have a look at all the Calibration Plants and see which ones you can help “tend.” Some of the Calibration Plants for Season Spotting have great economic importance, and others may support a single - but irreplaceable - aspect of a natural system.

Calibration Plants: Season Spotting

These are a few of the plants scientific researchers are asking us to observe in your area. You can choose one or more of these Calibration Plants to observe for your Season Spotting project (a number of these plants are found in the same area as each other).

See all Calibration Plants for Season Spotting | See all Calibration Plants for Citizen Science

Comments

DesertRose replied almost 2 years ago
Bats are important pollinators as well and are also in trouble--what can we do to help them?
gardener replied over 1 year ago
@DesertRose:I agree. Have you heard of those bat houses that you can buy? They are pretty cool. Haven't tried one myself, but I am looking out for them :)
gardener replied over 1 year ago
@gardener:here is a link: http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html
PYehl replied about 1 year ago
I added a bat house to the south of one of my barns last fall.  I'm hoping to see activity this year!  Not only for the pollination, but for the help with eating the bugs!!   We plant well over 200 sunflowers in our garden, definitely helps bring the pollinators to the garden to help all the other plants, but they are just so pretty to look at!
gardener replied about 1 year ago
@PYehl:wow! so cool. do you have any photos?
PYehl replied about 1 year ago
@gardener:yeah I posted some sunflower shots from last year's garden in my profile, 200 plants doesn't take up as much room as you'd think.  made for a wonderful backdrop!
Clenram replied 9 months ago
@PYehl: Nice!

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