Harnessing Citizen Science to Protect and Restore Puget Sound
Citizen science offers an exceptional opportunity to enhance public stewardship of Puget Sound and provide credible, cost-effective data to fulfill research, monitoring and management needs.
The Puget Sound Partnership contracted with Washington Sea Grant (WSG) and Washington State University (WSU) Extension to develop recommendations for advancing citizen science to address Puget Sound Action Agenda priorities. These recommendations reflect the collective thinking of WSG and WSU Extension staff and the Citizen Science Advisory Panel:
- Establish a Citizen Science Resource Center to facilitate connections between science needs and citizen capabilities and to provide resources to support and enhance these relationships.
- Identify research priorities well suited to citizen science contributions.
- Proactively develop collaborations that will contribute to science and management needs for protecting and restoring Puget Sound.
- Provide consultation services for citizen science.
- Develop and maintain resources to facilitate citizen science efforts linked to scientific research, monitoring and management needs.
- Promote citizen science as a research, monitoring and resource-management tool.
- The Puget Sound Partnership should adopt formal policy language promoting the use of citizen science to support research, monitoring and management needs.
- Introduce citizen science as a research tool in science education.
- Promote citizen science success stories and contributions to research and management.
- Develop approaches for providing sufficient, stable funding for citizen science efforts that contribute to science and management.
- Evaluate the contribution of citizen science efforts to Puget Sound science.
The recommendations are contained in a report submitted to the Puget Sound Partnership in July 2009. The report includes a working definition of citizen science, a brief description of citizen science models, a summary of challenges and barriers to effective use of citizen science, and additional detail on the recommendations.
Download the report and stand-alone executive summary:
Citizen Science Advisory Panel
The Citizen Science Advisory Panel contributed critical and creative thinking and guided the development of recommendations.
- Russel Barsh, Kwiáht: Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea
- Maggie Bell-McKinnon, Washington State Department of Ecology
- Susan Bullerdick, COSEE-Ocean Learning Communities
- Doug Myers, People for Puget Sound
- Jan Newton, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
- Rohinee Paranjpye, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries
- Walter Pacheco, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
- Julia Parrish, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Program on the Environment, University of Washington.
- John Pierce, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Mike Racine, Washington Scuba Alliance
- Randy Shuman, King County, Department of Natural Resources and Parks
Partner Members
- Kristen Cooley, Puget Sound Partnership
- Kate Litle, WSG
- Don Meehan, WSU Extension