October 2004

Southern Research Station - USDA Forest Service

Citizen environmental monitoring in Appalachia

Validity, impact, and sustainability

Citizen environmental monitoring (CEM) is the repeated collection of, and in some cases analysis of, environmental data by local volunteers. Ecological parameters measured by volunteers should be selected to answer questions of interest to the community and can be used for a variety of purposes including setting background levels, establishing environmental trends, raising a red flag of possible problem areas, educating communities, and influencing policy and management practices.

Summit Objectives: We aim to bring together people from across Appalachia to learn about the usefulness of citizen environmental monitoring (CEM) to promote environmental awareness in communities and achieve various stakeholders' goals. This conference will address the use of volunteers to monitor water quality as well as the presence and abundance of invasive and exotic species. In addition, discussion will focus on the role volunteers can play in monitoring forest health and measuring how sustainably the forest is being managed.






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