In the Spotlight: Earth Day

Celebrate Earth Day – Today and Every Day


Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, started Earth Day to bring attention to environmental issues. It was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. Twenty years later, environmental advocate Dennis Hayes expanded the campaign worldwide through the Earth Day Network by broadening and diversifying the movement. Every year, over 190 countries celebrate Earth Day, and in 2009, the United Nations officially designated April 22 as International Mother Earth Day.


More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the single largest civic observance in the world. Many of these environmentally-minded citizens give their time and energy throughout the entire year to environmental programs or to citizen science projects, ranging from large national initiatives to small localized neighborhood efforts.


There are a number of volunteer projects that specifically monitor wildlife. Listed below are a few of these programs, which are either supported by the Wildlife Disease Information Node or by our colleagues in the wildlife health community. If you want to help promote a healthy ecosystem, volunteer with one of the programs below or a similar program in your area!



Avian Monitoring for Botulism Lakeshore Events (AMBLE) - http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/amble
Monitor bird health and beach conditions along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Door County, Wisconsin to increase the knowledge of avian botulism trends. Training sessions are scheduled to begin in May.

Butterflies and Moths - http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org
Share your sightings or photographs of moths and butterflies. The information collected, such as species occurrences and life histories, will be used to form or address research questions.

Garden BirdWatch - http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw
Collect observations of birds or other garden wildlife online that will help researchers answer important questions about how, why and when birds and other wildlife use gardens.

HealthMap - http://healthmap.org
Enter reports online or with a smartphone about sightings of illness in people, domestic animals, or wildlife to build a more comprehensive view of the global state of infectious disease for public health officials and other interested groups.

Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch - http://www.wildlifecrossing.net/maine
Record your observations of road-kill wildlife. Scientists will use this data to make Maine's state roads more wildlife-friendly and thereby reduce wildlife deaths and increase safety for people and animals.

Pollinators Monitoring Programs - http://tinyurl.com/pollinators-volunteer
Join one of the many citizen science pollinator monitoring projects and help scientists gather more data from a larger area than they could do on their own.

Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET) - http://www.tufts.edu/vet/seanet/volunteer.html
Choose a section of the Atlantic coastline to walk regularly and report your findings on beach conditions and seabird mortality. The information collected will be used to identify and mitigate threats to marine birds.

Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) – http://www.wher.org
Report wildlife health observations online or with a smartphone to help researchers better understand wildlife disease occurrences, which inturn may lead to more effective disease control and prevention.

Sources:
* Wikipedia - Earth Day
* Earth Day Network - Earth Day: The History of A Movement

Other Volunteer Programs?

Do you have a volunteer program you want to promote? Send us a link the program’s website and we will share it with our readers.