Simone M. Scully

As the lead technician in a Virology lab, Sarah Horak had always loved her work in science. Her job didn’t actually allow her to be out in the field very much though, which was disappointing, as  she and her husband, Justin, both loved the outdoors and were always trying to find more ways to spend time there. So when she found out that there was a nonprofit called Adventure Scientists looking for volunteers to help other scientists gather data in the outdoors, she was immediately intrigued.

“They were looking for volunteers to help collect water samples for [a] microplastics study,” she says. “I signed up, met with the project manager on the study, and was immediately hooked.”

The project allowed her to combine her two loves — science and the outdoors — which is why the microplastics project was only her first foray into Adventure Scientists projects. After two years of volunteering on that first one, she and her husband became volunteers for a large, important pollinator project that was gathering information about butterflies in remote, backcountry areas.

Insects are the foundation of biodiversity, and yet, very little is known about most of their populations, especially in wilderness areas. So the pollinator project with the University of Arizona aimed to gather information about butterfly populations in wild public lands, how their ranges shift, and which species might be declining in the near future.  This information would then inform how conservationist could save butterflies before it’s too late, and could even help maintain entire ecosystems too because these pollinators serve as what scientists call “biodiversity indicators” for ecosystem health.

“Butterflies contribute to pollination of some flowers,” explains Michelle Toshack, Adventure Scientist project manager for the pollinator project. “[But] their main role in ecosystems is to provide food for other animals. Those fat caterpillars are essentially nature’s hot dogs, and can make up a large proportion of birds diets, especially in high alpine ecosystems.”

“Insects in general have rapidly declined over the past few decades, which has huge implications since so many animals rely on [them] for food,” she continues. “[And] many of the threats to pollinators [like butterflies] are human-caused.”

But to gather the kind of data set that they needed to truly understand the distribution, density and abundance of butterflies in remote, public lands, needed a lots and lots of information just  to establish a baseline. “For prioritizing pollinator conservation, the very first step is understanding distribution of existing species,” explains Toshack. “How can we know what to conserve if we don’t even know what species are out there, and what their distribution is?” Just to establish the baseline they needed would have taken years and years had it not been for the help of Adventure Scientists.

That’s why the nonprofit Adventure Scientists unites scientists with outdoor enthusiasts, such as Sarah and her husband, who are willing to help gather data in some of the pretty wild and difficult places around the world.

“We recruit, train, and manage volunteers to gather lab-quality field data so that our partners can use the data in scientific studies policymaking, and in court to address pressing environmental and human health issues,” explains Marcus Pearson, Director of Program Investments and General Counsel at Adventure Scientists.

The best part is that you don’t have to be a scientist or even have a scientific background to volunteer to gather this data; you just have to be willing to be trained in the process of scientific data collection and, of course, be adventurous enough to strike  out into some pretty remote places on any of the seven continents in the name of research.

For example, for the pollinator project, Toshack says, “we have a small army of butterfly-chasers in high alpine meadows collecting data for this project… This summer alone, volunteers hiked over 3000 miles!”

“[It] would be nearly impossible to get that many field technicians or graduate students out collecting data on that scale,” she continues. “Volunteers fill in data gaps in remote areas where otherwise there [would] have been little or no data.”

Of course, in order for that data to be lab-quality, volunteers have to be thoroughly trained.  “Some projects require in-person training, while for others, we develop online trainings,” says Pearson. “In both cases, we require our volunteers to review the scientific literature behind the issue and to walk through the protocol in a way so that in the end, they can pass a test with a 100% score.”

“A less-than-perfect score requires the volunteers to review the training and retake the test,” he adds.

For the pollinator project, Toshack trained volunteers through online training modules, teaching them how to chase down a butterfly (without falling or hurting themselves in the process), swoop it up into a butterfly net and then carefully handle it without harming it. She then showed the trainees how to take high-quality photos of the top and bottom of their wings, submit the photos through an iNaturalist app and then carefully release the little critters safely to the wild again. Finally, she trained them on how collect information about wildflowers in the areas where they saw butterflies.

“Butterfly catching is not as easy as it looks,” says Sarah. That’s why she had her husband take on the task of actually collecting the butterflies, while she took the pictures of them. The pair went on several trips in Montana for the project, including Hyalite Lake and Garnet Mountain (an 8-mile round trip hike to a large meadow).

“When people ask why we volunteered,” she continues, “I tell them ‘who wouldn’t want to bound through mountaintop meadows collecting butterflies?’ The truth is, in our busy lives, we often don’t take real time to enjoy the beauty around us. Adventure Scientists gives us more of a purpose for the completion of our weekend adventures.”

Already, according to Toshack, the baseline data collected by volunteers, like Sarah, in 2017 and 2018 has made an impact. Researchers on the project have partnered with the US Forest Service to implement management strategies for butterflies, such as restoration planting, timing prescribed burns, and forest planning. Plus, Toshack says, “we are engaging a global group of curious volunteers” who become ambassadors for the many issues around pollinator decline.

For her part, Sarah says, she just loves “being a part of something that could have such a huge impact for change.”

Oysters also build three-dimensional reef structures that, like coral reefs, provide a habitat for a number of other species, from tiny microorganisms that live in the nooks and crannies created by their shells to larger species such as seahorses, whales and seals that feed on the critters living on the reef. Oyster toadfish, for example, like to hide and lay their eggs in the crevices of oyster reefs, while blue crabs use the reefs as hunting grounds.

The reefs also provide natural breakwaters, or underwater barriers, that soften the blow of large waves, helping prevent storm surge and the erosion of shorelines.

So when these natural oyster reefs around New York Harbor were destroyed, explains Mosher, “a really important and vital landscape disappeared.”

“Just imagine a forest disappearing from a landscape and all the animals that go with it being wiped out as well,” she continues. “That’s why restoration is so important. We’re trying to restore that critical lost landscape.”

To accomplish this, they want to restore one billion oysters to the region by 2035.

Of course, this is not a quick or easy task. In many places in the harbor, the rocky hard bottom that oysters use to latch on to and form reefs has been destroyed or disappeared. Without that hard surface, oyster larvae have nothing to grow on, causing them to sink into the soft, muddy floor and die.

So, to restore the reefs, Mosher says, “one of our major [restoration] initiatives is to build a structure called a gabion, which is an 8 by 2 by 2 foot welded steel cage.” This cage, she explains, can then be filled with recycled oyster shells collected from more than 70 restaurant that BOP partners with across New York City. So far, they’ve collected a million pounds of oyster shells from these restaurants, diverting them from landfills in order to recycle them for oyster reef restoration.

These shells are then cured, which means that they are left outside for the elements to naturally cleanse them of any organic matter or pathogens that could cause harm to baby oysters, or oyster larvae.

Once cured, these recycled shells offer the perfect structures for oyster larvae to latch onto in the water. Just one reclaimed shell can house 10 to 20 new live oysters. So, when these shells are placed in the water in areas, such as in the upper Hudson River, where there are some wild oyster populations remaining, they can help recruit and jumpstart the creation of new, artificial reefs.

In places where there are few or no wild oyster populations left, BOP takes an extra step. Instead of just placing the cured shells in the water as is, they work with their partner, the hatchery at the New York Harbor School on Governors Island, to grow and hatch baby oysters that are attached to the cleaned shells prior to being placed in gabions. They are then strategically placed off New York’s coastline in the hopes that they’ll create brand new reefs.

So far, BOP has started 12 artificial reefs — containing 28 million oysters — across the harbor, some close to shore, others further out in deeper water. Of those 12, four are “community reefs” where local New Yorkers can volunteer to help monitor oyster reef health and growth. They also have three floating oyster hubs active off piers, marinas, and basins to grow new oysters. BOP also teams with more than 70 public schools across the city, allowing students to help monitor water quality and oyster survival, while also learning about the importance of oyster restoration in the process.

In total, those twelve artificial reefs amount to 7 acres, a far cry from the historical numbers New York once knew, but they still represent a very important step forward in BOP’s ongoing work because these reefs are already yielding promising results.

“This past summer in 2018, we had a really abundant wild oyster set in the upper Hudson, as well as further down the Hudson river near Manhattan. We even saw some as far down as Coney Island creek,” says Mosher. “We saw wonderful settlement of baby oysters onto a lot of the structures we put in the water and even some natural habitat in a few rocky places.” Hopefully with more progress like this, the help of BOP and the dedication of local volunteers and students, the reefs in New York harbor will one day again be as thriving and diverse as they once were.