Citizen science–the powerful partnership between professional scientists and members of the public who collect important scientific information–is coming of age. At national meetings of wildlife biologists, at conventions of international conservation organizations, and in birding groups across the continent, the concept of citizens collecting data for use in environmental monitoring and conservation is growing rapidly. Now, the concept is about to take hold within the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS), which recently signed a cooperative agreement with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to develop and implement citizen-science bird-monitoring efforts on National Forest lands throughout the country.

Why this new agreement? First, USFS lands are critically important in conserving populations of many plants and animals, including numerous species of declining birds. Indeed, the USFS is responsible for sustaining the health, productivity, and diversity of its 191 million acres of forests and grasslands, located in 44 states, to meet the needs of future generations. Therefore, the agency has long been supportive of Partners in Flight–the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation program–and is helping, both with staff and with funding, to draft the Partners in Flight conservation plans. These plans, many of which will be implemented on USFS lands, rely on information about the habitat requirements and distributions of birds that is best collected by armies of volunteer birders engaged in citizen-science projects such as those developed by the Lab.

Second, many sources believe the future importance of USFS lands to society will largely be in their recreational value. Developing ways for bird watchers to "bird with a purpose" on Forest Service lands gives the USFS a way to provide recreational opportunities that actually can result in long-term ecosystem protection.

The new Lab of Ornithology/USFS cooperative agreement, which builds on a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations originally signed in February 1993, focuses on two items. First is an expansion of the Lab’s Birds in Forested Landscapes (BFL) project, which studies the habitat requirements of several species of forest thrushes and the Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks. In this project, hundreds of participants have spent the past two breeding seasons gathering data on the numbers of breeding (or potentially breeding) thrushes and hawks in forest patches of different sizes. Many of these patches have been located on USFS lands. In fact, USFS was a supporting partner in BFL’s predecessor, Project Tanager, which studied the breeding requirements of four species of tanagers across the country.

At that time, the USFS provided a full-time site coordinator, helping birders who lived near Forest Service lands to locate suitable study plots. Some of the best Project Tanager data, which now are being used to develop management guidelines for these Neotropical migratory birds of concern, came from USFS lands,
and my agency will be putting  these guidelines to direct use in our own forest-management activities.

Funding through this new agreement, matched by dollars already in hand at the Lab, will allow the BFL project to continue full-steam ahead, continentwide, during the 1999 breeding season. This will give the Lab a third year of hawk and thrush data, which will allow project biologists to develop the best possible guidelines for managing these species as well as tanagers.

The agreement should also  increase the number of BFL participants working on USFS lands, because it includes funds to support Barb Kott as the newly appointed USFS citizen-science coordinator. Kott, a wildlife biologist in Zigzag, Oregon, at the Mt. Hood National Forest, has played an active role with Partners in Flight since 1990. To expand BFL on national forests in the West, Kott will coordinate her efforts with biologists and educators within the Forest Service. Together, they will expand current partnerships within various USFS programs and the Partners in Flight initiative.

Involving established volunteers in BFL will help the USFS maintain and nurture its own volunteer programs. In addition, Kott will work with universities, birding organizations, and professional conservationists in the West. We want to reach out and involve these enthusiastic trained individuals, so they too can assist with the conservation of our western birds. This arrangement should help the Lab dramatically increase the number of BFL participants in the West– where the participant pool is traditionally lowest–because most USFS lands are located in the western part of the country.

The cooperative agreement looks into the future, too. In addition to ensuring the continuation of BFL for at least one more year, it provides funding for the USFS and the Lab to jointly explore additional citizen-science projects, related to birds, that could be managed by the two organizations and conducted on Forest Service lands. For example, many national forests may want to implement bird-monitoring and checklist projects that will be conducted through BirdSource–the Cornell Lab of Ornithology/National Audubon Society Internet data collection program. And, we hope to develop a network of permanent study sites that will enable biologists across the country to collect a large amount of data on many species of birds while, at the same time, involving visitors to USFS lands in meaningful data-collecting activities that will lead both to bird conservation and to visitor education.