Finished! Looks like this project is out of data at the moment!
Thank you for your efforts! We've completed the classification stage for this project! To browse other active projects that still need your classifications, check out zooniverse.org/projects.
Research
About Wesselman Woods
Wesselman Woods is home to the largest urban old-growth forest in the United States. With over 220 acres of land, this nature preserve marks one of the hidden gems in Evansville, Indiana. Being located along the Ohio River on the south and White River along the north, Southwestern Indiana has very diverse terrain and geological development. There is no other city in the Unites States (with a population exceeding 100,000) with such timber stand and sylvan qualities. No other place in Indiana has such high density or basal area as Wesselman Woods. Having been preserved through human settlement and timber harvest, the property is home to trees over 300 years old! For more information about Wesselman Woods please visit our website.
Methods
This project is composed of 9 cameras around various transects in the nature preserve. Cameras are placed on trees near corridors or "wildlife highways" where wildlife is most likely to traverse. Each camera is placed at approximately 3.5ft above the ground. These cameras are deployed four times a year during the months of January, April, July, and October in an effort to capture seasonality. During these months, the cameras run continuously for 30 days. After these deployment periods, we often capture thousands of photos to upload onto this project page. Because our research team is so small, we really depend on citizen scientists and volunteers to help us go through the photo tagging process. After all the photos are tagged, we extract the data into a larger database for data analysis.
Importance
This unique forest has so much research potential but has yet to be taken advantage of. There are large-scale camera trap projects around the U.S trying to better understand urban ecology through the Urban Wildlife Information Network. Although Evansville is not as big as these cities, Wesselman Woods has unique landscape characteristics. The differences between greenspaces in cities and the wildlife they house is critical to understanding urban ecology, habitat connectivity, and invasive species management. Biologists have a basic understanding as to why there are so many differences in wildlife occupancy between cities. By contributing to this research question we are not only contributing to urban ecology theory, but we are also enforcing the importance of greenspaces and biodiversity in cities for better city planning and conservation.
Goals
The overall goal of this project is to collect meaningful data that will influence academia, foster community-wildlife relationships, and local policy. We hope the citizen-science aspect of the project will promote urban ecology and environmental stewardship throughout the community. Eventually, we will be able to start seeing patterns in wildlife occupancy, seasonality, daily species activity, and species abundance. We hope you'll help us make our goals a reality!
