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National Park Service (NPS)

The National Park Service (NPS) values and uses citizen science in pursuit of its mission to preserve natural and cultural resources and to provide enjoyment and education for visitors. For the past few decades, the NPS and its diverse partners have offered a wide array of citizen science projects in parks across the country. They range from one-day events like BioBlitzes and ArcheoBlitzes to ongoing activities like monitoring plant phenology and camera-trapping mammals.

Participants include trained volunteers who dedicate time for repeat visits in the field, high school students and teachers who collect data to complement their formal classroom learning, and general visitors who make science part of their park experiences. In most cases, participants make observations and submit data, photographs, and other information to databases that park resource managers use to inform their stewardship actions. Online analysis tools, mobile apps, partners, and teachers also provide participants the opportunity to analyze data and explore patterns and relationships among variables.

Projects can be found below, on individual park websites, through partners, and via aggregators like scistarter.com. The NPS is currently building a new citizen science website to compile all active projects and provide additional information about citizen science in national parks.


Number of Projects: 174