Volunteer

The Collaborative is looking for citizen scientists to help identify the extent of the infestation of starry stonewort in the Great Lakes basin! A primary objective of the Collaborative is to increase the number of citizen scientists who do rake toss surveys to locate starry stonewort. Though not full scientific surveys, the collection of basic information that describes where and how much starry stonewort is around the region is very important, providing the first steps to effective early detection and rapid response.

The Starry Stonewort Collaborative is seeking individuals, and groups, to help identify areas of growth and collect some descriptive information. Even areas that don’t have starry stonewort are important to report to help gauge expansion of the beds!

We provide training and support

We provide training, materials and support to groups to get them ready to do starry stonewort surveys AND basic field kits to give citizen scientists a jump start as they begin their field work. These kits include tools and information to enhance field sampling and starry stonewort identification easier and fun.

“How to do a rake toss to determine plant communities in a water body”, an instructional video by Patty Wakefield-Brown, Invasive Species Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator at Finger Lakes Institute.

Results Recorded Into Survey123

Volunteers can record results right in the field into a free app that runs on digital devices like smart phones and tablets. FLI and their volunteers find Survey123 useful for its live interactive map which enables the reporting of location-based data. Results upload to a cloud where FLI Staff can review data before uploading to iMapInvasives, USGS-NAS or other data systems.

Near real-time reports of starry stonewort locations are updated automatically when citizen scientists submit their data!

Note: These points represent volunteer survey locations only and do not necessarily reflect verified starry stonewort locations or that voucher samples were taken in these locations.

Join Us NOW to help all of us learn more about how we can better combat this harmful starry stonewort invasion!