The Shape of Community Science in Our Landscapes
Written by A. Srivastava
This week, we finally got a chance to sit down and talk with Kelly Ridenhour, the creator of the Atlanta Firefly Project. Kelly developed the project for her master’s thesis and has since graduated, leaving the project in EcoReach’s hands. Kelly still assists with the Atlanta Firefly Project and is continuing to collaborate on other community science works such as Trees Atlanta and the City Forest Certification Program. Excitedly, she told us why she chose to study fireflies and make it a community science initiative.
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“A lot of things inspired me to study fireflies,” Kelly told us, “I would say the most profound one is going back to those childhood memories early in my life, just enjoying fireflies outside. My dad, who is a zoologist and definitely interested in the natural world, encouraged me to run around and have those experiences on my own as a child, and certainly spending time making those connections is a very sweet memory that lasted me throughout my life.”
Kelly was initially interested in studying the cultural landscapes we live in and their role in the environment at large. Cultural landscapes are defined as a geographic area including both the cultural and natural resources where a social system, event, cultural practice, or history has shaped the environment through experiences we have with that space. Think of perhaps a yard in front of and around someone’s house, residential greenspaces. In time the property comes to reflect the physical biological, and cultural attitudes and values of the person who lives there through the choices made regarding landscaping and maintenance, but also may be influenced by characteristics of the neighborhood aesthetic.
When working through her masters, Kelly decided to study not just what they are, but how they function, change, and why they matter to people living in urban areas. Today, the majority of people in America live in urban areas so their experiences with nature are influenced by the landscapes they live in.
“I am approaching these cultural landscapes from that ecological lens in terms of what sort of services are being produced,” Kelly says. Cultural ecosystem services are the non-material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems through recreation, tourism, intellectual development, spiritual enrichment, reflection and creative and aesthetic experiences. These services are often not ones that have a monetary value but are none-the-less extremely valuable. Trees that provide shade in the heat of the summer, sacred rivers in India that hold religious significance, and hiking and nature trails are all examples of landscapes that provide cultural services.
Fireflies also provide an important cultural service across the Eastern US. For many folks, watching fireflies in the summer often brings a child-like joy and excitement. Whether you’re watching fireflies across an empty field or in a neighborhood park or outside your own house, they help shape the cultural landscapes we live in and our connections to nature.
Kelly uses these concepts to explain why she chose to make the Atlanta Firefly Project a community science initiative. “All of [the Atlanta Firefly Project] is rooted in cultural landscapes and cultural ecosystem services. Experiences with fireflies are a significant nature experience for a lot of us.” It makes sense to include the people who commonly encounter fireflies to be a part in collecting the data. There are also many practical reasons. “I needed a lot of data in a very short amount of time across a pretty wide geographical area…It’s really practical to get a lot of people all over the city participating in this project.” Since the specific species of firefly Kelly was interested in, the Big Dipper firefly, only comes out in the evening during June and July, it would be difficult to survey numerous areas in Atlanta at those specific times.
“There is also a goal of having conservation outcomes. Maybe people can be equipped with knowledge about what is best for fireflies in residential landscapes,” Kelly says, “When you have the public and researchers working together in an issue, it is more likely that you can make those conservation gains.” Public outreach is immensely helpful for spreading awareness and information about conservation efforts when researchers and community scientists already have that connection among themselves.
When asked about what we need to facilitate community science’s growth, Kelly lists some key guidelines. For researchers, it is important to be intentional with the questions they ask and how may it be relevant to the people living in that area. While some folks may not be interested in saving a local species they’ve never heard of they may have noticed pollution levels rising lately or their own dwindling natural resources. Connecting an issue to, as Kelly is interested in, ecological and cultural services is both mutually beneficial for researchers and the community. It answers the question of why the community is involved at all. Data collection is also just one part of how community scientists can get involved. And after, including people in the analysis stage, the education outreach, and conservation drives home any outcome you want in public conservation.
“The scientific process, all of it is rooted in community science, originally. Truthfully, before we had this defined practice of what we call science, it’s usually amateurs who are making systematic observations and recording them. And eventually, that process turns into a replica system,” Kelly explains. The scientific process was made by community scientists who were making repeated observations and trying to understand their results. Over time, they developed into what we know now as the scientific method. These community scientists shaped how we practice and understand science from the very beginning!
If researchers want to engage in community science there are some challenges they might face outside of typical independent research. Logistics of such an initiative are important to understand. First, who is the community and how do you unify it for your goals? Communication can also be a challenge. How do you promote your cause? Do you use social media, do you give talks or presentations? Understanding the marketing dimension is key for involvement and connection outside of academia.
So, what’s next for the Atlanta Firefly Project and Kelly? As we’ve mentioned before, the AFP is being continued for future summers. It is now under the leadership of EcoReach at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, which we talk about in length in this blog post. EcoReach is able to continue the data collection for multiple years which is important to understand population trends for future analysis and research, but it is also a way to give back to the community that helps bring the project to life. Continuing the project allows us to keep in touch with our community.
Kelly herself is still helping out, now excited to be a part of the community scientists rather than in the professional, job-like setting. She is also working with Firefly Atlas, which we have mentioned with Richard Joyce in this blog post.
Further, there are multiple ways to get involved with community science:
The National Audubon Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to conservation involving birds with many opportunities to volunteer which you can check out here: https://www.audubon.org/
Kelly encourages looking into other firefly projects or any environmental issue that interests you like monarchs, amphibians, or water quality. You can find local groups around you with a google search.
Species identification apps like iNaturalist and Seek are very useful for folks wanting to learn more about the organisms around them. By submitting photos of different species, community members can get a sense of the diversity of species around them and scientists can use that data to help with research.
Join a local climate group or take steps to make conservation a priority on your property. For folks in Metro-Atlanta, you can check out Trees Atlanta and their City Forest Certification Program. That is a great way to start if you are interested in forest restoration. You can visit them here: https://www.treesatlanta.org/
As Kelly puts it, “pick your passions, take a look at what’s around you, and start getting involved in something.”
