Community Science

Community science, also known as citizen science, involves collaboration between the scientists and the public to collect and analyze data. We want to encourage the community aspect of citizen science by hosting events and creating spaces where people can come together, share their knowledge, and learn from one another. Academia is often not accessible for many people and we want to be part of the change by bringing science into communities. We host a number of community science projects and events where everyone is welcome to participate.

Alberta Plant and Pollinator Community

We wanted to create a place where people can learn about local events, follow projects, and learn about the plants and pollinators in Alberta. The Alberta Plant and Pollinator Community (APPC) is organized and run by Toryanse Blanchard and Justine Doll, who are both MSc students at the University of Calgary in Dr. Jana Vamosi’s and Dr. Mindi Summers’ labs. If you want to collaborate, have a community event you would like to share with us, or have any questions, please feel free to send us an email.

Email: contact.appc.hub@gmail.com

How you can get involved: Current Projects

Rare Plants of Alberta

Learn about rare plants in southern Alberta and meet their fellow neighbors and pollinators! We are studying the community composition of two rare species important to people of the Kainai First Nation: Onnikiisaikimsskaan (Green Comet Milkweed) and Purple Geranium. Rare plant species often rely on positive relationships with other plants in their community. By recording traits of the neighboring plants that these species exist with, we hope to illuminate their critical habitat needs, and help inform future restoration projects in southern Alberta. See events for upcoming walks!

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Calgary Pollinator Project

The Calgary Pollinators Project is a community science project dedicated to documenting pollinator diversity in Calgary. The project data focuses on insect pollinators and their associated plants. You can help us by contributing your photographs of an insect interacting with a flower or flower parts of plants.

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Alberta Native Plant Rescue

Native plant rescues are an effort to save native plants from areas slated for development or other disturbances that would otherwise destroy them. The rescues depend on volunteers and experts who carefully remove and transplant the plants to safer locations where the plants can continue to thrive. You can plant the rescued native plants in your yard or donate them to the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society.

Native Plant Rescue