December 2019 • Nebraskaland 41
guidelines.
"There's a lot we don't know," Lynch-O'Brien said.
"Scientists need help. And there's no reason the general
public can't help, because scientists are people too."
Personal Experiences
I talked to six Nebraskans who participated in citizen
science last summer, and started to hear reoccurring
comments: They enjoyed the opportunity to get outside, to
learn and to contribute data that mattered. They'd encourage
others to try citizen science. And they'd do citizen science
again in the future.
"It just opens another way of feeling the outdoors," said
Dan Leuenberger of Lincoln, who participated in a Nebraska
Game and Parks survey for monarchs and regal fritillaries.
"I've never paid a lot of attention to butterfl ies before, but
now, after doing the survey, I think about butterfl ies and I
look for them more often than I used to."
Kellie Hayden of Omaha said she wanted to get a degree
in biology as an undergrad, but ended up taking a diff erent
career path. By getting involved in citizen science now, "I'm
learning a lot of the stuff I wasn't able to learn in school, but
then at the same time I'm actually contributing to the larger
knowledge base," she said.
To her surprise, doing citizen science also increased her
confi dence, Hayden said. "When I fi rst started bird banding I
was very afraid to touch the birds; I really didn't want to hurt
them. Knowing and understanding what I'm doing has just
really elevated my confi dence."
A Success Story
Nebraska boasts quite a few successful citizen science
projects. One of them, the Nebraska Wildlife Watch, asks
participants to identify species in camera trap images.
Meredith Steck and Andrew Merwin of Lincoln search for insects during a bioblitz at Denton Prairie. A bioblitz is a citizen
science event that focuses on fi nding and identifying as many species as possible in a specifi c area over a short period of time.
