Citizen scientists are volunteers who contribute to scientific projects, such as environmental surveys, by collecting data. Small contributions by many people collectively produces a valuable picture of what we have achieved to date and what we still need to do to realise our vision of a flourishing environment for our native wildlife. This helps to inform and guide our work programmes for subsequent years.

We have several upcoming opportunities for budding citizen scientists, including:

Bird counts in local reserves and other sites of ecological significance.

Reporting pest plants on public and private land – so we know where they are 

Conducting surveys using chew cards, tracking tunnels and wax tags to monitor for rats, mice, possums, stoats and hedgehogs.

Monitoring the health of your local streams and waterways. We can put you in touch with the Auckland Council Healthy Waters team to provide you with training. 

We are also currently taking expressions of interest from individuals and organisations keen to participate as volunteers for our catchment-scale predator eradication, stream restoration and pest plant control programmes. These programmes will include elements of citizen science, as we will need volunteers to help with environmental surveys such as predator monitoring, water quality testing and bird counts to help us assess our progress.