Dr. Cindy Hale teaches Environmental Education and Ecology courses at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and currently serves as the Director of Bolder Lake Environmental Learning Center. She is also an adjunct Research Associate with the Natural Resource Research Institute. She holds a B.S. in Ecology from the University of Minnesota, a M.S. in Environmental Sciences  (UMD) and a Ph. D in forest ecology and science education from the  University of Minnesota. As the founder of Great Lakes Worm Watch, Dr. Hale  trains and collaborates with citizen scientists throughout the Great

Lakes basin to monitor the spread and impacts of exotic earthworms. An award  winning presenter, Cindy is active in the Duluth community and enjoys  spending time outdoors. She lives just north of Duluth with her husband and  daughter.

Great Lakes Worm Watch - a citizen science program that folks use, but don't report!

Since it's inception as Minnesota Worm Watch in 2001, Great Lakes Worm Watch has developed a user friendly website with a wide array of background information and tools that formal and non-formal educators and citizen scientists have used to learn about the impacts of exotic earthworms in forest ecosystems. We have hosted scores of workshops, training well over 300 educators and citizens to use our resources to help document and monitor exotic earthworms across the Great Lakes Region. Interest and demand for our materials and workshops continue to increase. However, we struggle in actually getting participants to report their data. Informal discussions suggest that lack of confidence in their data is a major factor limiting submission. A new collaboration with Wisconsin Nature Mapping will provide us with a model online data entry and viewing interface that we are hoping will help encourage submission of data by providing easy access and a structure that reassures participants that their data is valuable and being used.