Top Down or Bottom Up

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Top Down or Bottom Up? ALLARMs experience with
two operational models for commmunity
science Candie C.Wilderman
Dickinson College
July 22, 2003

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The Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring
(ALLARM) is

• A project of the Environmental Studies
  Department at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA,
  founded in 1986 by Candie C. Wilderman.
• Staffed by two full-time professionals, a
  part-time faculty Science Director and 12-15
  students.
• A service provider offering capacity-building
  programmatic and scientific technical assistance
  to watershed groups throughout the Commonwealth
  of PA.
• Funded by institutional, governmental and private
  monies.

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ALLARMS goals are

• To empower communities and individuals with
  scientific knowledge so they can participate
  meaningfully in decision-making processes, in
  advocacy, and in action to protect and restore
  our natural resources, and
• To provide Dickinson College students with
  opportunities to use their classroom experiences
  to directly benefit communities, thereby
  enhancing the quality of their undergraduate
  science educations.

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The roles in which ALLARM engages
citizen-scientists have varied over the past 17
years.
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Topics of this session

• A brief analysis of the range of operational
  models for citizen-science
• A comparison of two models with which ALLARM has
  had some experience

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What is citizen science?

• Citizen science involves a research partnership
  between community people and professional
  scientists.
• There are a variety of successful operational
  models for this partnership.
• These models differ in their goals, the nature
  and scope of the projects, and the extent of
  community control over the definition and
  implementation of the project.

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Categorizing the various models for community
science can be based on answers to five questions

• Who defines the problem?
• Who designs the study?
• Who collects the samples?
• Who analyzes the samples?
• Who interprets the data?

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Community Workers Model 1
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Examples of Community Workers Model 1
Study of the infestation of blue bird nests by
Protocalliphora (blowflies)
MD DNR Stream Waders Volunteer Monitoring Program
(Macroinvertebrate Analysis)
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Community Consulting Model (Science for the
People)
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Examples of the consulting model
European Science Shops

• Provide independent, participatory research
  support to community groups
• in the form of equitable partnerships between
  the social client and the researchers, and
• in response to concerns expressed by civil
  society.
• (Gnaiger and Martin, 2001)

Some PA Growing Greener Grants support programs
using this model
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Community Workers Model 2
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Examples of Community Workers Model 2
Backyard bird counts
Weather monitoring stations
Acid rain project
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Community-based, Participatory Research Model
(Science by the People)
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The role of service providers

• Provide capacity-building programmatic and
  scientific technical assistance to groups at low
  or no cost to the groups.
• The need for and role of service providers varies
  among the operational models.

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Examples of Community-based, Participatory
Research Model
Consortium for Scientific Assistance to Watershed
(CSAW) is a team of specialists who provide
program management and scientific technical
assistance to eligible watershed groups.
Watershed-based projects
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Science for the People
Science by the People
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The history of ALLARM
Rep. John Brojous
Me in 1986
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Dickinson College
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Sites Monitored by Volunteers
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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
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Data have been used

• in studies connecting watershed attributes to
  stream vulnerability and evaluating the extent of
  the impact of acidic deposition in PA these
  results have been presented at scientific
  conferences and published in proceedings
• to revise fish stocking practices
• to craft testimony in support of acid
  deposition control both in the PA state
  legislature and at the federal level
• as baseline data to compare to newer data to
  assess the impact of the 1990 Clean Air Act
  amendments (ongoing)

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ALLIANCE FOR AQUATIC RESOURCE MONITORING
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LAUREN IMGRUND, DIRECTOR
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ALISSA BARRON ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
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CANDIE WILDERMAN FOUNDER AND SCIENCE DIRECTOR
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Study Design Workshops

• A study design is a written document that
  describes the choices you make about monitoring
  intended data use determines design.

Where?
When?
Why?
How?
What?
Who?
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Visual Assessment Workshops
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Habitat Assessment of Physical Stream Parameters

• Based on the EPA Protocol for Rapid Bioassessment
  Protocols for Use in Streams and Wadeable Rivers

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Factors evaluated in a habitat assessment

• Instream habitat
• Epifaunal substrate/available cover
• Embeddedness
• Channel Morphology
• Velocity/depth combinations
• Sediment deposition
• Channel flow status
• Channel alteration
• Frequency of riffles/bends
• Bank Structural Features
• Bank stability
• Bank vegetative protection
• Riparian Zone
• Riparian zone width

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Chemical Monitoring Workshops
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CHEMICAL PARAMETERS OFTEN MONITORED BY VOLUNTEERS
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Macroinvertebrate Workshops
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Data to Information Training Workshops-
Preparation
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Data to Information Training Workshops
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Problem sites
TRND 01.0, MTRK 03.9, CONO 74.5
CONO 82.9, BS 00.0
Violations
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Information to Action Workshops
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Typical watershed action plans based on volunteer
data

• Developing grant proposals for restoration
  projects
• Developing watershed fact sheets for public
  education
• Working with landowners to implement best
  management practices
• Developing conservation easement programs
• Upgrading stream protection status
• Removing dams
• Implementing stream and riparian zone restoration
  projects

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In addition, ALLARM provides assistance for grant
writing, for organizing volunteers, and for
building group capacity.
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R.F. Shangraw, Jr (81).Community Aquatic
Research Lab
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QUALITY CONTROL ADVANCED ANALYSIS
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Split-sample analysis
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Advanced analysis -- flame and graphite furnace
atomic absorption spectrometry
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A PARTIAL LIST OF PARTNER GROUPS
Lackawanna County Conservation District Spring
Creek Watershed Community Beech Creek Watershed
Association North Pocono CARE Watershed Alliance
of York Big Spring Watershed Association Conodogui
net Creek Watershed Assoc. Ridge Valley
Streamkeepers Shermans Creek Conservation
Association Lower Merion Conservancy
Paxton Creek Education Project Letort Regional
Authority Stoney Creek - Conemaugh Rivers
Improvement Project Codorus Creek Monitoring
Network Roaring Run Watershed Association Coplay
Creek Monitoring Project Pine Creek Headwaters
Protection Group Conemaugh Valley
Conservancy Kiski-Conemaugh Alliance Powells
Armstrong Creek Watershed Assoc, Fishing Creek
Watershed Association West Perry School District
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Consortium for Scientific Assistance to
Watersheds, CSAW, is a team of service-providers
who provide eligible watershed groups or local
project sponsors program management and
scientific technical assistance. The Consortium
is funded by the PA DEP Technical Assistance
Grant program.
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WHO ARE THESE SMART KIDS?
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Lessons learned from working with two models of
community science

• As the amount of community control increases,
  partnerships with professionals (service
  providers), who can provide mentoring, becomes
  more critical.
• As the amount of community control increases,
  more effort on the part of the service provider
  is required up-front, but this effort will result
  in long-term, sustainable activities and
  capacity-building.
• A consulting or community workers model will
  produce more immediate, measurable results, but
  the activities will end when the money runs out.

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Contrasting mentoring needs
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Contrasting yield
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Contrasting yield (cont)
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Difficulties in assessing the impact of
capacity-building projects

• The benefits of capacity-building are long-term.
  Assessment requirements are usually framed
  within a shorter time scale.
• You cannot measure the power of capacity-building
  in stream miles restored or number of pages. In
  fact, capacity-building is very difficult to
  quantify.

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Conclusions

• There are many different operational options for
  community science projects, and the choice of
  operational structure depends largely on the
  goals of the project. Different options provide
  different levels of community control.
• If it is desirable to empower community groups
  with skills to address community concerns in a
  sustainable manner and to participate
  meaningfully in decision-making, significant time
  and resources must be invested up- front to train
  community researchers.
• Such investment can be achieved through a
  mentoring partnership between the group and
  service-provider.
• This capacity-building, although difficult to
  assess in the short-term, is an essential
  component of a sustainable framework for
  effectiveness of watershed organizations, and
  results in more bang for the buck in the
  long-term.

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If you give a person a fish, (s)he will eat for a
day.
If you teach a person to fish, (s)he will eat for
a lifetime.
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The democratization of science can be an
essential tool
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To protect and restore our natural resources.