The USGS, through the Californian CESU, is offering the Phenology Literacy (PLUSS) Grant.

The USA-NPN (www.usanpn.org) is an emerging and exciting partnership focused on phenology (the timing of life cycle events of plants and animals, such as flowering or migration). Changes in spatial and temporal patterns of phenology can be used to understand how plants, animals and landscapes respond to environmental variation, and can facilitate the development of tools to facilitate human adaptation to ongoing and potential future climate change. Because phenology is an integral aspect of natural systems, human culture, and day-to-day life, and because it is tightly linked to climate, it is changing virtually everywhere that climate is changing. Therefore, phenology provides concrete, local examples of climate change impacts that are happening at the neighborhood level and that affect essentially all people and natural systems.

The PLUSS project will contribute to the development of a local, regional and national-scale program—USA-NPN—that uses phenology, particularly participatory monitoring of phenological events, as a means to help people learn about climate change and its impacts and that involves people in climate change research to produce valuable phenology data. Because phenology can be observed anywhere there are plants and animals, the project will address climate change issues for a wide range of audiences with a particular focus on underrepresented groups in urban and rural settings. Observing phenology and actively participating in national-scale climate change research will provide these audiences with first-hand experiences of how scientific research is conducted and why climate science matters at the local level. This experience will enhance the understanding of science content and process, will encourage them to see themselves as science learners, and may encourage some to enter careers in science or related education.

Specific objectives are:

1. Maintain native plant phenology gardens and continue to implement phenology-based curricula at two local Santa Barbara schools (the Franklin School and Cesar Chavez School), leveraging on a national participatory monitoring program such as Project BudBurst or Nature’s Notebook.
2. Based on lessons learned from existing phenology monitoring gardens or trails, establish a native plant phenology garden or trail, and implement phenology-based curricula at the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) based on Nature’s Notebook.
3. Work with VFWO to facilitate the development of at least one other phenology monitoring project (e.g., formal or informal garden or trail) including implementation of phenology-based curricula in the Santa Barbara, Port Hueneme, Ventura area based on Nature’s Notebook.
4. Produce a report on the establishment of phenology gardens and the implementation of phenology-based curricula at Franklin School, Cesar Chavez School, CCBER and the site established in collaboration with VFWO (i.e., Objectives 1-3) describing the process for design and implementation, lessons learned, and recommendations for replication at other sites in California and through a national program such as the USFWS Schoolyard Habitat Program.
5. Develop instructions for the creation of a phenology monitoring garden with examples and links to existing projects, programs and curricula developed as part of Objectives 1-4.
6. Develop one phenology curriculum module for formal or informal educational activities for undergraduate students using Nature’s Notebook or using phenology data from a national phenology monitoring program.