Project Description: 

ALUS Middlesex is creating a Wildlife Monitoring Program for their projects. Funds would be used to purchase a nest box and trail camera to passively document on-site wildlife activity. Photos would be used for community outreach and education, data analysis, and uploaded to iNaturalist to facilitate better protection of local wildlife species. Equipment could be moved between sites and used in partnership with researchers and community groups to maximize benefits.

Community based monitoring promotes community leadership, increased connection to the land, and knowledge sharing. Photos will also be used as a tool to spark community engagement in local wildlife and shared with local researchers and community groups interested in the data. Finally, data will be made publicly available for the benefit of anyone in the London community, further facilitating community connection through species protection.

Typically, wildlife monitoring uses methods and equipment inaccessible to the general population and access to data is often a privilege of those in academic institutions. This community-based monitoring program aims to create opportunities for communities to engage in environmental monitoring and gain access to their own environmental data. This approach also allows for the goals of monitoring to be tailored to the needs of individual communities or participants.

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