As you know, we at HCFS encourage keeping an eye on nature and seasonal happenings in our gardens, farms, ranches, and across the whole foodshed. These observations and monitoring over time can bring greater awareness and engagement in protecting and restoring the health of the food-producing ecosystems and surrounding wild ecosystems that make up our foodsheds.
As Spring approaches, we make our recommendations of what to monitor—for people of all ages. Even preschools can adapt some of these for their youngest children with teachers guiding them in more casual observations. Of the many targets to monitor detailed on our Observing Indicators of Foodshed Health page, we recommend the following:
The Great Sunflower Project
As our Pollinator page explains, insects provide pollination services essential for crops and wild plants, and some are declining in number. Bees of several types (responsible for a third of all our food), flies, butterflies, moths and many others are the focus of this Citizen Science project. You simply count the number of times a pollinator (which you need not identify) visits a specific flower or flowers. Easy directions are provided and suitable for all but the very youngest children through adults.
Bumblebee Watch
Bumblebees are very important pollinators and very easy to recognize. In this project, you submit a photo of a bumblebee, and are guided online to making your best guess as to the species, which will then be verified by an expert. Sighting of rare and endangered bumblebees are especially helpful to scientists.
First Occurrences
Not a specific program, but our suggestion to watch for various happenings as the seasons progress—first robin, hummingbird, dragonfly, bumblebee, asparagus, apple blossom, ripe tomato, sweet corn harvest, frost, etc. Simply include what you observe in your garden or farm records or on your desk calendar so you can share and compare with other growers in your area. I like to think of these “firsts” as something to celebrate—especially when they are foods!
Weather & Climate
Another must for growers are records of weather occurrences—daily precipitation, hail, frosts, and maximum/minimum temperatures are the most important and pretty easy to do—just contact us if you need some advice on this. With these records you can compare your conditions year-to-year and with others in your area. As the climate changes, this is one of the most critical things we can help keep track of.
The webpages for this project have lots of background information, educational activities, suggestions for improving insect habitat where you live, and information on the data gathered across the country. With complete instructions, they are easy to do, fit curricular standards, and help scientists gather more data and develop solutions. Many have phone apps for submitting data.
While you are seeing seasons change locally, you can follow migrations across the continent at Journey North.
Please let us know what you are observing this year and what you are seeing. Let us know how we can help.
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