Citizen Scientists

Being a resident of the “Buckeye State”, I found this article to be interesting. The article opens with Mary Hufford asking Ken Willis a simple question about the buckeye tree in June o... See More

Being a resident of the “Buckeye State”, I found this article to be interesting. The article opens with Mary Hufford asking Ken Willis a simple question about the buckeye tree in June of 1997. She asked Ken if he thought the species was in danger. Ken simply replied with yes. He cited that the species was yellowing in July, much earlier than what it should be, and the tops of the trees were dying too quickly. Ken solely blamed the problem on pollution. Based on the article so far, I imagined Ken was some sort of botanist or biologist studying the buckeye tree. The article later explained that Ken is just a resident of a rural town in the Appalachian region of the United States. Ken, like many others in the area, were asked a series of questions that were recorded for the Appalachia Forest Action Plan (AFAP). The AFAP’s goal was to ask citizens in this region about biological diversity, seasonal harvesting and geographical changes that have occurred in recent years. The AFAP wanted to understand how ordinary citizens of a region were responding to pollution and climate change. The cite AFAP chose to monitor was selected due to its importance. This area has earned the nickname the “mother forest” due to its rich biological diversity. The article itself was interesting because the field research done in this area was based on the observations of its citizens. The article reflects that ordinary people can be just as observant as professionals in the areas of biology and botany, thus granting these citizens the title of ‘Citizen Scientists’. This article shows the importance that everyone has on the natural world around them. It allows ordinary people to understand that without their observations and insight many problems may go undetected and therefore unsolved.