I have always been a proponent of involving amateur naturalists as integral participants in ecological research, and believe this is especially important for those of us interested in addressing environmental problems in all their messy socio-ecological complexity. I have had good experiences participating in and observing a variety of citizen science projects, and am happy to be launching a project of my own this month.

During April 15-May 15, 2008, my lab is running the first (of what we hope is a long-running annual event) spring Fresno Bird Count. Please stop by our website to read more about it, and let us know if you have ideas and suggestions to improve the project, or have experiences to share.

On a more existential note: I know this NN group is pretty small and has been moribund since I started it a year ago. I’m trying to see if (amid all the other social networking outlets proliferating these days) it is worth saving this space for additional conversations about reconciliation ecology. What do (the other 2 of) you think? And if we keep this forum alive, how do we get others to join?