Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission
All programs take place at the Prospect Heights Public Library's Borland meeting room and start promptly at 7:00. Nature Speaks is free admission but registration is necessary.
November 30, 2017 - Rachel Goad
"Botanical Citizen Science, its Impacts, and How to Get Involved"
A host of threats face native plants, including habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change. Data is needed to adequately track plant response to these threats and to help determine appropriate conservation actions. Rachel's presentation takes a look at how botanical citizen science programs engage non-professional volunteers in collecting needed data.
Plants of Concern, a rare plant monitoring program, and Project BudBurst, a plant penology tracking program, are both citizen science efforts of the Chicago Botanic Garden that have contributed important regional and national data for plant conservation for over a decade. This talk will discuss these programs, their relevance in a changing climate, and how you can get involved.
Rachel is the manager of Plants of Concern, a regional citizen science program focused on rare native plant populations in the Chicago Region and headquartered at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She has worked with botanical citizen science programs since 2006. Rachel has a Master’s degree in Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and serves as the secretary for the Illinois Native Plant Society.