Wisconsin Outdoors
RON SEELY
The Associated Press
(AP) — WAUSAUKEE, Wis. – Ron Vandervelden of Wausaukee can howl like an adult wolf and whimper like a pup. He can read wolf signs in the northern forests with all the skill of a turn-of-the-century trapper. He is an aficionado of wolf song.
“Some packs,” Vandervelden said, “just love to howl. Some packs are great singers. Some are off key.”
Such an intimate knowledge of wolf behavior comes not from a degree or professional training but years of trekking through the woods as a volunteer wolf tracker for the state Department of Natural Resources. Vandervelden is one of about 130 citizen trackers who have played an important role in helping the agency keep tabs on a resurgent wolf population and develop data that guides management decisions.
He’s part of a little-heralded but significant movement in natural resource management that was worth noting on the recent Earth Day April 22-the rise of the citizen scientist.
Thousands of volunteers are now helping natural resource agencies and organizations in Wisconsin and around the country keep an eye on everything from wildlife populations to water and air quality. The surge of interest in such volunteer opportunities has been matched by a growing willingness by natural resource professionals to embrace the efforts, said Loren Ayers, who coordinates citizen-based monitoring programs for the DNR.
“There has been an explosion in the number of people participating,” Ayers said. “It just makes sense. These are public resources that people value.”
The contributions are substantial and increasingly necessary as agencies struggle to adequately gather data used in making management decisions, such as whether to remove an animal like the wolf from endangered status or establish a stormwater management plan to protect a trout stream from nearby development.
Ayers said a recent study showed there are more than 150 volunteer monitoring groups in the state, which contribute more than 300,000 hours of labor each year-work that is valued at $20 million annually.
The professionals who oversee the volunteer efforts cannot say enough about their value. Adrian Wydeven, an ecologist who oversees the state’s wolf recovery program, said volunteer trackers cover more than 5,000 miles of road and trail for the agency each winter. Each volunteer is responsible for blocks of forest as large as 200 square miles or more.
“It more than doubles the mileage we can cover,” Wydeven said.
Jayne Jenks, a conservationist who oversees citizen monitors for Waukesha County, said she relies on 20 teams of volunteers to keep track of and record conditions along the Rock River, which is edged by development along much of its course. The work requires no small commitment. Volunteers must spend time on their section of stream once a month, she said, toting along instruments that allow them to measure water clarity, temperature and flow rate. And at least once a year, they carefully inventory living things in the stream.
Why do people make the effort? Why do they get up before dawn to count cranes? Or spend an entire day netting bugs from a cold creek?
Many say it is because of the resource itself, a cherished landscape or stream or creature. Others say they volunteer because of a reverence for all things wild and a nagging worry that, without the attention and the science, the rich diversity of the planet will fade to a memory for children and grandchildren.
For Vandervelden, it’s about the wolves and making sure that their howls echo for long to come.
Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj