Citizen science charts horse chestnut tree pest spread

A citizen science study, involving more than 3,500 people, has revealed the spread and establishment of the horse chestnut leaf-miner in the UK.

It also suggests that a native species of wasp that preys on the tiny insect will not be able to curb its impact.

Read the article on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25878202

Citizen Science helps track SOD in California

Citizen Scientists Key to Halting Sudden Oak Death (Op-Ed)

Matteo Garbelotto, University of California, Berkeley
"After spending over 50 percent of my time since 2006 working with volunteers on large projects, it is my opinion that in a funding-limited world, one of the best ways to move basic science forward is to work closely with the invaluable resource volunteers provide.  We should not only employ them to report or count organisms, but also treat them as peers and build strong cooperative efforts in which tasks are properly shared between professional and volunteer researchers."

Read the article here:

http://www.livescience.com/37207-sudden-oak-death.html

Research - it's kid stuff

A citizen science project involving middle school students:

Bias in ecology and climate studies? How leaves shrink as they dry out is often overlooked

These kinds of projects get the public involved and provide them with a better understanding of the issues, in our case, surrounding SOD and P. ramorum.