A season of growth: $1.7M grant will help bring phenology to new regions and new generations
Phenologists study the timing of seasonal natural events like flowering and leaf fall.
If you’ve spent time watching for buds and flowers in your garden, looking out for renewed snake activity along your favorite hiking trail, or waiting for migrating bats to return to Tucson’s bat bridges, you’ve been practicing phenology.
Phenologists study the timing of cyclical natural events like flowering, leaf fall, and hibernation and migration patterns. Their work helps ecologists and climate scientists understand how living organisms respond to environmental cues – and how those cues are impacted by a changing climate.
The USA National Phenology Network collects and organizes this vital data on a national scale. Now it’s poised for a new stage of growth, thanks to a new $1.7 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. According to Theresa Crimmins, USA-NPN director and associate professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, the grant will help USA-NPN to broaden its reach to new geographic areas and to a new generation of volunteer scientists.
“We have the potential to dramatically increase engagement,” she said. “This funding will allow us to make our tools and protocols more accessible to more people, increase volunteer recruitment and retention, and ensure that our work is sustainable going forward.”
Improving resources, reducing barriers
One of the primary activities of USA-NPN is to engage professional and volunteer scientists in tracking seasonal changes in plants and animals using the Nature’s Notebook platform, which is offered online and as a mobile app.
The "Nature's Notebook" interface prompts volunteer phenologists to record their observations using a series of yes-or-no questions designed to produce robust data about the timing of cyclical natural events.
Crimmins said that a recent grant from the National Science Foundation enabled the Network to make significant upgrades to the app to improve overall user experience, making it easier for users of all ages and levels of expertise to record their observations.
“The app was first developed over a decade ago, so it really needed to be updated,” she said. “We’re making improvements to functionality, to make our data collection protocols doable for almost anybody.”
The updated app and online interface are expected to launch in June 2026. Crimmins said that USA-NPN plans to capitalize on the improvements to make it easier to establish local phenology programs, locally led groups of people who work together to make phenology observations at the same site over time.
“One of the things we’ve learned over the years is that long-term participation tends to go up when observers are part of a team,” she said. “People stay engaged a lot longer, we end up with more frequent observations on individual plants and animals, and the data tends to be higher quality.”
She explained that funding from the GBMF grant will allow the Network to streamline the certification coursework required for prospective local phenology program leaders, and to refresh online resources and tools to mirror the updated Nature’s Notebook interface.
“We also want to create an online forum for local phenology leaders to share information and best practices with each other,” she said. “And we plan to establish an ambassador program, where enthusiastic Nature’s Notebook participants can actively participate in recruiting other volunteer scientists.”
Inspiring new phenologists
The grant will also fund a new paid position dedicated to recruiting, onboarding and supporting the establishment of new local phenology programs in the Pacific Northwest, which has low participation in Nature’s Notebook compared with other parts of the country, according to Crimmins.
“We see signs that there’s a lot of enthusiasm in that region, but there aren’t as many groups collecting data as we’d expect,” she said. “We plan to hire a coordinator who’s local to the region, who can help recruit groups and get them established so that they’re self-sustaining.”
USA-NPN also hopes to expand their reach into schools, introducing K-12 students to phenology concepts and – hopefully – inspiring them to collect and submit their own data through Nature’s Notebook.
“We have the potential to reach younger folks, especially if we can combine forces with teachers and have this get folded into curriculum, even in a tiny way,” Crimmins said. “This grant will fund a new curriculum consultant role to help us figure out how to engage effectively with K-12 teachers and governing bodies, to map our protocols onto science standards.”
USA-NPN produces historical, real-time, and forecasted models and maps that track natural phenomena like the progression of spring onset across the country.
Ensuring USA-NPN’s longevity
In addition to running Nature’s Notebook, the Network offers a wide range of historical, real-time and short-term maps and forecasts of seasonal activity across the country. These resources support researchers, policymakers and decision-makers in industries including natural resource management, agriculture, tourism and human health.
Crimmins said that many of those tools were built on antiquated computing systems and are in need of significant updates to ensure long-term viability.
“The systems driving those tools are very complicated, so we can’t easily migrate them over to newer infrastructure,” she explained. “In some cases, we’ll need to completely rebuild them. We’re so grateful for this grant, because it allows us to bring in experts who can help us transition away from that old hardware into something that will be sustainable.”
She added extending and strengthening USA-NPN’s phenology resources will be important for research and conservation efforts, especially in light of changing climate and weather patterns.
“We track over 2,000 species of plants and animals across seasons, so we have a fairly comprehensive picture of how those patterns work,” she said. “Our work provides very visible indications of how species and whole ecosystems are responding to rapidly shifting conditions. This information is crucial to climate change adaptation and conservation.”