Dear USA-NPN,


Typically as the calendar turns to fall we enjoy cooling temperatures and bright autumn colors. Instead, this year much of the country is facing extreme weather. People in Southeast states contend with devastating impacts from Hurricane Helene and here in the Southwest heat records continue to fall as we sit under an abnormally strong high-pressure system. I hope everyone is staying safe!


Below, we are excited to share news about a long awaited revamp to our Nature's Notebook app. The new app will lower barriers for new users getting started with tracking phenology as well as provide fun challenges, notifications, and multi-lingual support. We can't wait to share updates as this project unfolds!

Sincerely,

What's new at Nature's Notebook and USA-NPN

Funding for a new Nature's Notebook app!

Our top priority at the moment is making much-needed improvements to the Nature's Notebook app to ensure a smooth (and fun!) experience entering your phenology data. We're excited to share that we have received funding from the National Science Foundation to overhaul the app! Work started this month and will continue for several years. New features will include a choice of entry-level and advanced-level datasheets, visuals displaying past observations made by yourself and other Local Phenology Program members, the ability to share your data on social media, and one-time reporting options. Stay tuned for more details on this project!


Read the NSF award summary »

Phenology coming in Spring 2025!

Looking for a basic primer on the topic of phenology, for use in your classes, or even to simply better explain to your friends and loved ones what the term means? We've got you covered! Phenology, authored by our Director Dr. Theresa Crimmins and a part of the MIT Press's Essential Knowledge book series, provides a simple and comprehensive overview of the topic. Scheduled to go live in March, 2025, pre-orders will open in the coming months.


Learn more »

Recent happenings in the field of phenology

Nature's Notebook data speak for the trees 

Understanding how climate change is affecting species is especially important for threatened or endangered species, which already exhibit perilously low species numbers. A research team led by Jeremy Yoder at California State University, Northridge sought to determine the environmental conditions that Joshua trees must experience to trigger flowering. Using over 10,000 images of Joshua tree contributed to iNaturalist, the team predicted whether and when Joshua trees flowered in years past, back to 1900, and tested the performance of the model in predicting the timing of flowering by comparing the predictions to observations contributed to Nature’s Notebook. They determined that over the past 120+ years, the trees have increased how frequently they flower, as a result of progressively warmer temperatures and more variable rainfall over the period.


Read the Publication Summary »

2023 State of the Climate report features phenology

The State of the Climate is a special supplement produced by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society each year. This year, both data you collect through Nature's Notebook and USA-NPN map layers are included in the section summarizing the start and end of seasonal activity of plants.


Read the report »

Especially for Local Phenology Leaders

Tracking shifts in B.C.'s seasons

The Milner Gardens & Woodland Local Phenology Program engages volunteers across Vancouver Island in British Columbia in tracking the impacts of climate change on native plants. Their goal is to collect data for 10 years so that they have meaningful results to share with government agencies. An article from Canada's National Observer describes their volunteer's motivations.


Read the article »

When are berries ripe for Kodiak bears?

Staff at Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge have been documenting the timing of ripe fruit in four berry-producing shrubs on Kodiak Island in Alaska since 2015. We recently imported data they had collected using Nature's Notebook protocols and now have a data dashboard that displays some of their data. The visualizations show how the availability of ripe fruit, used by Kodiak bears on the island, varies between species and across years.


View the Kodiak NWR Data Dashboard »

 Photo:

Yathin S Krishnappa

Join our LPL Monthly calls

Each month, Local Phenology Leaders across the country join together to share resources, ideas, and more. Volunteer Engagement Coordinator Samantha Brewer leads the calls with different topics each month. You can join our email list to be notified of monthly call topics that may be of interest.


Sign up for LPL Monthly Call emails »

Related resources

A TEDx talk by Director Theresa Crimmins

For those in the Tucson area, please join us on October 18th at the University of Arizona for Desert Genius, a series of TEDx talks celebrating resilience and ingenuity inspired by our Sonoran Desert. Our Director Dr. Theresa Crimmins is a featured speaker.



Get tickets »

Third annual Environmental Data Summit

Applications are now open for the 3rd annual Environmental Data Science Summit hosted by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The goals of the Summit are to build community and foster collaboration within the Environmental Data Science community.


This year’s theme is The Future of AI in Conservation & Management. Attendees and speakers will consider the opportunities and risks of using AI to inform (or transform) their approach to conservation and management, including new and different tools, the ethics connected with using AI, and future applications and innovations. Application deadline is October 4, 2024


Learn more and apply for travel support »

New and improved insect pest forecasts

This spring we released two new Pheno Forecast to predict the activity of problematic insects - Asian longhorned beetle and spotted lanternfly. A new article in City Trees, a publication of the Urban and Community Forestry Society, has the details.



Read the article »

Contact

Erin Posthumus

Partnerships & Projects Manager

erin@usanpn.org


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