Format: ORAL

Jessamine Finch1, Micah Jasny1,2, Katherine F. Kucera3,4, Gretel Kiefer4

1. Conservation Department, Native Plant Trust, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA 2. Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, Westborough, Massachusetts, USA 3. The Wetlands Initiative, Chicago, Illinois, USA 4. Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, Illinois, USA

Since the end of the 20th century, volunteerism has become a major component of biological conservation worldwide. Interacting factors including limited funding, availability of technology, and public interest present a unique opportunity for conservation scientists and practitioners to benefit from larger datasets with broader spatial and temporal reach than possible with professionals alone. Volunteer monitoring efforts can be considered a part of the wider, growing field of community science (a.k.a. citizen science). In tandem with benefits to science and conservation, volunteers gain hands-on research experience, scientific knowledge, outdoor opportunities, and community. While adoption of community science in plant conservation appears to be increasing over the last 30 years, the landscape has remained largely undefined. To better understand the current status of community science in plant conservation, we conducted an assessment of community science projects that conduct rare plant monitoring. Through online research and targeted outreach, we surveyed 19 project managers in the United States and Australia and close to 300 volunteers from five unique projects. We documented a spectrum of project models, bounded by semi-autonomous surveys and monitoring directly supervised by researchers. We found that volunteers contribute tens of thousands of hours to monitoring rare plants annually, representing hundreds of thousands of dollars of in-kind donations. Despite project success documented through longevity, number of volunteers, and the amount of data collected, persistent challenges including data quality, data security, and project management limit establishment of new projects and the potential of existing projects. This assessment has led to the founding of the Rare Plant Community Science Network with the goal of improving rare plant monitoring and conservation through sharing and collaboration between community science programs. The network currently represents 38 programs spanning four countries (Canada, U.S., Australia, and South Africa) and three continents.