Citizen Environmental Monitoring Conference

Citizen Environmental Monitoring in Appalachia Summit: Building Environmental Monitoring Programs for Validity, Impact and Sustainability
Bristol, Virginia November 4-6, 2004

What is Citizen Environmental Monitoring?

Citizen environmental monitoring (CEM) is the repeated collection of, and in some cases analysis of, environmental data by local volunteers. Ecological parameters measured by volunteers should be selected to answer questions of interest to the community and can be used for a variety of purposes including setting background levels, establishing environmental trends, raising a red flag of possible problem areas, educating communities, and influencing policy and management practices.

Summit Objectives

We aim to bring together people from across Appalachia to learn about the usefulness of citizen environmental monitoring (CEM) to promote environmental awareness in communities and achieve various stakeholders' goals. This conference will address the use of volunteers to monitor water quality as well as the presence and abundance of invasive and exotic species. In addition, discussion will focus on the role volunteers can play in monitoring forest health and measuring how sustainably the forest is being managed.

Here's an example of citizen environmental monitoring at work!

In 1996, due to a Forest Service rule that banned cutting any tree over 21 inches in diameter, the town of Lakeview, Oregon was faced with the possibility of closing the town's largest private employer, the Fremont Sawmill... Yet, the locals in Lakeview convinced environmentalists that they were willing to change their ways, and over the next few years, the newborn Lakeview Stewardship Group drew up a set of management goals for the unit. Local contractors would continue to receive preference for work in the unit, but the restoration of forests and watersheds, rather than providing logs for the mill, would have to come first. The group also agreed to let scientists closely monitor its work.

CEM summit speaker, Richard Hart , and the local science teacher, Clair Thomas, are teaching high school and college kids from Lakeview and neighboring communities how to monitor the forest's health. "The science we're using makes specialists nervous - it knocks their intellectual egos around," says Hart, who spends his summers teaching students how to detect everything from soil compaction to root rot. "They say, 'You can't teach college kids this stuff.' " But one faculty member at Washington State University has already offered each of these kids a full-ride scholarship to his forestry program.

To read more:

Lakeview Oregon Story.pdf

Whom is this conference for?

Land Trusts
Watershed Groups
Land Managers
Government Agencies
Community Organizations
Researchers

Environmental Educators
Recreation Groups
Volunteers
Foundations
Policy Makers

We are in the process of finalizing the AGENDA and registration materials. If you would like to receive information as it becomes available, please send your contact information to:

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