Engaging youth in public lands monitoring: opportunities for enhancing ecological literacy and environmental stewardship

Abstract

The US Forest Service has a long history of youth conservation education. We investigated U.S. Forest Service citizen science programs that involve secondary school students in field collection of monitoring data to understand (1) how the programs integrated science and environmental education and (2) whether these programs advance ecological literacy and environmental stewardship. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the program leads, teachers, and students. Program leads and students said programs produced reliable data and met monitoring and other U.S. Forest Service stewardship objectives. Although these programs varied in design and objectives, our findings suggest these programs were incorporating both science and environmental education, and there is some indication they are creating ecological literacy among participants. Students exhibited environmental stewardship to some degree as a result of all programs, but the extent of this is tied to programs’ objectives and design.

Keywords:

• Citizen science
• ecological literacy
• environmental education
• environmental stewardship
• monitoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aleksandra N. Pitt

Aleksandra N. Pitt is currently a visitor use management specialist with the National Park Service. This research was part of her master's degree which she obtained in 2016 from Colorado State University.

Courtney A. Schultz

Courtney A. Schultz is a professor of natural resource policy and governance. Dr. Schultz's research agenda focuses on policy design to support improved governance, specifically the intersection of science and policy, with recent work focused on policy innovations. She also directs the Public Lands Policy Group, a research group focused on US public lands policy and governance.

Jerry J. Vaske

Dr. Jerry J. Vaske is a Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. For the last 40 years his research has focused on the application of social science theory and methodology to the concerns of natural resource managers and policy makers. His primary teaching responsibilities focus on research methodology and statistics.