Master Naturalist Training and Volunteer Opportunities
During Physical Distancing and Beyond


With the help of Master Naturalist Volunteers, we have compiled a list of resources to support you on your Master Naturalist journey during these challenging times. We have included some options and opportunities for completing your training hours, and many options for solo volunteering from home or in your local area. There are many opportunities for learning online these days, and any relevant online class or workshop you take can qualify whether you participate “live” or watch a recording afterward.

Training Resources

  • Webinar Archives | ForestConnect
    • We connect woodland users to the knowledge and resources needed to ensure sustainable production and ecological function on private woodlands.
  • NY Botanical Gardens – Online classes
    • Deepen your relationship with the natural world by taking classes at the New York Botanical Garden. From Floral Design to Gardening, Landscape Design, Botanical Art, and more, explore hundreds of classes to educate, inspire, and guide you.
  • Xerces Society Webinars
    • The Xerces Society hosts webinars and participates in events organized by other organizations. This page lists all the upcoming topics and dates. You can also find updates on our social media and via our e-newsletter.
    • Please note that we are accepting remote speaker requests! Depending upon our capacity, we can provide talks through platforms such as Zoom and Google Hangouts. Please fill out our speaker request form here.
    • We also encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Webinars put on by Xerces will be uploaded here after their stated calendar date, and there are many other resources available on our channel, including the Xerces Classroom Series.

Volunteer Opportunities

Outreach
If you are someone who enjoys giving presentations and teaching others, there may be more opportunities than ever during this time.

  • Many local organizations are looking to provide content to their members during this time, and may welcome a volunteer presentation. Reach out to some organizations near you!
  • We are also starting the “Naturalist Exchange”, a regular opportunity for Master Naturalist Volunteers to present on a topic via Zoom. Those who present receive volunteer credit, and volunteers who join in to learn receive training credit. Check out the NY Master Naturalist web site for more information coming soon.

Invasive Species Management
Removing or otherwise managing invasive species on your own land or land in your community can also qualify for volunteer hours.

Citizen Science
There are many citizen science projects available, and contributing to these efforts can be very rewarding. Some are internationally, nationally, state, or locally focused programs. Some focus on many different taxa, and others focus on one group such as birds, plants, or amphibians.

Multiple Species

  • Journey North
    • Journey North provides an easy entry point to citizen science, with simple protocols, strong online support, and immediate results. Reported sightings are mapped in real-time as waves of migrations move across the continent. People report sightings from the field, view maps, take pictures, and leave comments.
  • iNaturalist
    • Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed. We share your findings with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to help scientists find and use your data. All you have to do is observe.
      • You can record observations AND use it to help you identify species
  • Empire State Native Pollinator Survey · iNaturalist
    • We need your assistance documenting New York’s pollinators! This iNaturalist project is an important component of the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey, which aims to determine the conservation status of a wide array of New York’s native insect pollinators, focusing on certain focal groups of bees, flies, moths, and beetles in nonagricultural habitats.
  • USA National Phenology Network
    • The USA-NPN brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. Nature’s Notebook is a national phenology program in which professional and volunteer scientists record long-term observations of plant and animal life stages.

Mammals

  • iSeeMammals
    • iSeeMammalsis a project to collect information about black bears in New York State. Participants collect data on the presence and absence of wildlife from observations, hikes, and fixed/trail cameras to study wildlife populations. Citizen scientists can help by collecting data in areas that researchers cannot reach. More than 50% of New York is privately owned land — land that is more accessible to citizen scientists than it is to researchers

Birds

  • Audubon Society | Loading Hummingbirds at Home App
    • By joining Audubon Hummingbirds at Home you will join a movement to crowdsource rigorous science that is meaningful for hummingbirds. You will become an integral piece of a continent-wide network of community scientists helping uncover how hummingbirds are affected by climate change and providing the information necessary to devise actions to help them
  • eBird – Discover a new world of birding
    • eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework. Birders enter when, where, and how they went birding, and then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. eBird’s free mobile app allows offline data collection anywhere in the world, and the website provides many ways to explore and summarize your data and other observations from the global eBird community.
  • New York Breeding Bird Atlas
    • If you ever watch birds in New York, you can be a part of the Breeding Bird Atlas! Everyone is encouraged to participate from 2020-2024. Beginner and advanced birders alike can enhance their birding experience by observing bird behaviors. And you can be involved as little or as much as you want. Whenever you go birding—be it in your backyard, at your summer camp, or in your favorite park—every sighting counts!
    • A key change from previous atlases will be the use of eBird for data collection. eBird offers real-time data entry and outputs, so you’ll be able to follow along with results throughout the breeding season and across the entire project period. See our Tutorials page to get started with eBird atlasing!
  • NestWatch
    • NestWatch is a nationwide monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many hatchlings survive. Our database is intended to be used to study the current condition of breeding bird populations and how they may be changing over time as a result of climate change, habitat degradation and loss, expansion of urban areas, and the introduction of non-native plants and animals.
  • Project Pigeon Watch
    • Project Pigeon Watch is a citizen science project in which volunteers count pigeons and record the colors of courting pigeons.

Insects

  • Lost Ladybug Project
    • To be able to help the nine spotted ladybug and other ladybug species scientists need to have detailed information on which species are still out there and how many individuals are around. Entomologists at Cornell can identify the different species but there are too few of us to sample in enough places to find the really rare ones.
    • We need you to be our legs, hands and eyes. If you can look for ladybugs and send us pictures of them with our Upload Photos Submission Form we can start to gather the information we need. We are very interested in the rare species but any pictures will help us. This is the ultimate summer science project for kids and adults! You can learn, have fun and help save these important species.
  • Mission Monarque | Contribuez à la sauvegarde du monarque!
    • Mission Monarch, being run by the Space for Life Insectarium, is a citizen science program documenting the monarch’s reproductive success. The program is part of an international research and education effort aimed at saving the migratory populations of this endangered species.
  • Firefly Watch Citizen Science Project
    • Anyone in North America can participate in Firefly Watch. All you need to do is spend at least 10 minutes once a week during firefly season observing fireflies in one location (your backyard or in a nearby field). All firefly sightings—or lack thereof—are valuable!
  • Odonata Central
    • This citizen science web site is focused on expanding our understanding of the distribution, biogeography, biodiversity, and identification of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) in the Western Hemisphere. We encourage you to contribute your observations and explore the observations of others in maps, lists of records and species lists.
  • Bumble Bee Watch
    • Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees

Fish

Plants

  • MyHemlock – New York State Hemlock Initiative
    • MyHemlock volunteers choose one site—their own property or woodlot, or a favorite local conservation area—and survey a group of trees on that site twice per year. Surveys help the NYSHI team better understand the behavior and spread of HWA in New York and help local landowners and managers time and prioritize HWA management efforts.
  • Invasive Species | NY iMapInvasives | United States
    • iMapInvasives is New York State’s on-line, all-taxa invasive species database and mapping tool. The comprehensive database can be used for:
      • Documenting and sharing invasive species observation, survey, assessment and treatment data
      • The coordination of early detection and rapid response efforts though email alerts
      • Data analysis and summaries in the web interface and GIS

Other

  • Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper Volunteer Opportunities
    • Riverwatch Program – The Riverwatch Program consists of concerned citizens trained to use the latest technology to gather important water quality data in the Niagara River Watershed. Volunteers conduct monthly monitoring of streams in their neighborhood and also provide a network of “Eyes on the Water” to report pollution or improper land uses on these waterways.

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