Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail is looking for community members to join our group of Phenology Volunteers!

Since the Bloomingdale Trail opened, community scientists have been making observations of plants such as serviceberries and lilacs, which grow the length of the entire trail. (Note: you do NOT need to be an actual scientist to participate!) These volunteers gather important information about the bloom and leaf times for the plants, which in turn, can help climate scientists collect data for the Chicago region.

Phenology is the study of nature’s cyclical events, like when a plant’s leaves emerge or when a bird builds its nest. Simply put, it’s nature’s calendar.

Do you enjoy the urban ecology that is part of The Bloomingdale Trail?

Do you notice changes that take place in nature throughout the seasons?

Want an excellent excuse to walk a portion of the trail a few times a month, making observations of select plants and entering that information into a shared pool of nature observations?

Consider becoming a Phenology Volunteer!

Phenology tracking on the trail allows us to gather important data about certain plants and animals and register it with the National Phenology Network. We need a few more volunteers to be a part of this team of neighborhood nature observers.

An information session + initial volunteer training will be held on Monday, March 18th from 6:00 – 7:45 pm at the McCormick YMCA.

If you are interested, please email info@bloomingdaletrail.org and we’ll follow up.