Greetings ! I'm sharing this announcement from the University of MN in case it would be of interest.
The MNDNR Nongame Wildlife Program is collaborating on this. Please do share widely to MN landowners who may be interested. See below Lisa Gelvin-Innvaer Reg. Nongame Wildlife Specialist, CWB (r) Nongame Wildlife Program<http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/index.html> MNDNR ...... "Curious about biodiversity on your property? Join this unique study to discover your avian neighbors and help the Univ. of MN -West Lab to compare ecosystem populations across public and private lands. Use this link: https://forms.gle/3QXsSzkzjTWEnfFG7 to Become a Participatory Scientist. The Bioacoustics Research Group at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is launching its citizen science pilot project, Sounds of Nature MN: Bioacoustics for Bird Species Monitoring and Conservation, which seeks to advance our understanding of avian biodiversity across the state and how it might vary between public and private lands. Here are some key details: * We are selecting 60 public sites and 60 private sites that provide forest or grassland habitat (at least 1 acre) for migrating and breeding bird species. *Install an acoustic recording unit (ARU) on your property * Monitoring will be done for 50 days, 4-6 hours each day, from May 10th to June 30th using acoustic recording units (ARUs)<https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/products/song-meter-micro-2> secured to trees or posts by participants. * Once we have retrieved the ARUs we will begin processing over 30,000 hours of audio data using BirdNET<https://birdnet.cornell.edu/>, an AI powered Bird Sound Recognition Tool, with plans to share preliminary results with participants and the broader public by the end of the year Our lab already has boots on the ground to install units on public lands, but we need volunteers to lend a hand to represent Minnesota's private lands. If you are interested in applying, please COMPLETE THIS FORM<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LOEIaVRmf6UXLt0KIaq_8dbqiwtkuPLazxCTyheLUFY/edit> by April 27. Feel free to email our lab at soundsofnat...@umn.edu<mailto:soundsofnat...@umn.edu> with any questions you might have or if you need assistance completing an application. Also, please share this email with other MN landowners who might be interested. Note: Participants for this pilot year will be chosen based primarily on geography and habitat type, with preference towards grassland and forest ecotypes in the southern half of Minnesota. Landowners from all over the state are encouraged to apply as we continue to expand our project scale and scope in the coming years. " ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
