Youth-Based Citizen Science Monitoring: Case Studies from Three National Forests

The Forest Service is integrating citizen science programs and data into the management of national forests. We selected three Forest Service citizen science programs that involve secondary school students in field collection of ecological monitoring data and investigated the following: their design, content, and objectives; whether and how the Forest Service is meeting their objectives; and what have been the key lessons learned. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the program leads, teachers, and students. Program leads and students said programs produced reliable data and met monitoring and other Forest Service stewardship objectives. Although these programs varied significantly in design and objectives, they all offered students opportunities to explore careers with the Forest Service and to better understand public lands management. We suggest that objectives have a significant influence on student outcomes and should be designed with the collection of useful data as an objective from the outset. We also found that committed external partners and participation from multiple internal staff members support success.