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Phd candidate joining us

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all the way from St.
Louis University who

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will be talking about

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mutually beneficial
collaborations between

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residential conservation
programs and

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academic researchers
lessons from

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a project based
in St. Louis,

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but that has roots
here in Portland.

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The stage is yours.

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Great. Thank you
for having me.

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So half of myself,

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I'm a PhD student at
St. Louis University,

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Dan Pearson,
who's the head of

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the brand conservation
home program.

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Nicole miller strap men

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who's a professor
at Webster,

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feel free to reach
out to any of

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us after if you
have questions.

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So you may ask
why I'm giving

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a talk about
what's happening

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in St. Louis to a bunch

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of people in Portland.

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And it's because
we have this

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really cool program here,

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bring conservation
home, which is

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through St. Louis
Autobahn Society.

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And it's a sister program

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to your own backyard

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Cosby backyard habitat
certification program.

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I think that's what it is.

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It's similar in that
it has a lot of home.

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Ours has 1500
homes and it spans

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the BST metropolitan
area of St. Louis,

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Missouri and St.
Louis, Illinois.

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And I want to
highlight some of

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the research we've been
doing in the system.

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But first, the program
works, I'm at home.

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They're certified to one

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of three levels based

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on meeting certain
habitat requirements.

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Chiefly increasing

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the percent area
of native plants,

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decreasing

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the percent area of
invasive plants,

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and increasing the
number of canopy layers.

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With improvements,
homes can

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move up and
certification level.

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However, a vast
majority of the homes,

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almost 80 percent
haven't been

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certified within
the program either

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because we haven't created

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the habitat where
they haven't gone

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through the process
to be certified.

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But what this program
does is provide

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a great opportunity

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to do ecological research.

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There's a large
sample size of homes

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there and a lot

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of different
neighborhood types

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and urbanization levels.

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There's a gradient of
habitat quality with

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quality being
defined based on

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whatever your
research question is.

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Garden ages. So
some gardens

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just got started last
year and then we

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have a lot of native plant

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gardens that have been

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going since much before
b, c, h started.

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So lots of gardens.

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I got started in the
eighties and nineties.

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We found it very
easy to recruit

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people because of the
backing of Autobahn.

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The traditional
problem with

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doing research in
residential areas,

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it's simply getting
access to spaces.

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But we sent out
a lengthy survey

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to people and within
a matter of weeks,

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we had over 400 people

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responding eager for us

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to do research
in their yard.

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And lastly,
participants have

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high knowledge
about their garden.

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This is an
invaluable tool.

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For example, if I'm Many a

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times I haven't known what

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a plant is that they
have in their yard.

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I text them a picture

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of it and within minutes,

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they have already sent me

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back the scientific name.

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So these people really
know their gardens

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and are really excited for

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research to
happen in them.

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So I'm going to
highlight some of

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the research
we've been doing.

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So I study bees

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along and urbanization
gradient.

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One project I was
doing was looking at

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how bee diversity
changes in high, low,

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and uncertified yards from

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near Downtown St. Louis,

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very urban, our
ex urban areas.

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And one thing I
want to highlight

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is that enacts
urban areas.

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It seems like
ACH is getting

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the biggest bang for its
buck and that we see

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the highest abundance and

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diversity increase with
certification level.

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Whereas we're not
seeing this type of

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a pattern and urban
and suburban areas.

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There's also been
bird research

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done by Sasaki.

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I would say this
is bird research,

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but it's also a proof of

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concept of using
an audio block,

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which is a sound reporter

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to measure the urban
bird community.

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So she was able
to take reporting

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from dawn to dusk.

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She has 3 thousand hours

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of sound to go through.

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And what she can do is

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match the sound
recordings from in

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the yard to these
known audio grams

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of different bird calls.

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And use that to survey

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the bird community without

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actually having to
physically be there.

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Trade hole has been
doing mosquito research.

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So looking how diversity
changes across a

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low the different
certification levels.

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And he's found
that there's

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a higher mosquito
diversity

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in the higher
certify guards.

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And this is
actually a good

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thing because that
means there's

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a lower prevalence of

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the main vector
species of mosquitoes.

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We've also been
running a citizen

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science project
called shutter be.

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And what should
it be does is it

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gets people to take
photos of bees,

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bees on plants in

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their yard and post
them to iNaturalist.

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People don't have
to be enrolled

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in pch to do this.

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But we've had
65 participants

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who are enrolled in PCH,

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and overall they're very

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enthusiastic participants.

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This project's going
into its third year,

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but already we have

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26000 observations

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are Bs, which
is pretty cool.

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And because we have
photos of bees on plants,

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were able to do things

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like be visitation
networks.

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So we're able to

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look at the
floral diversity

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they have on their,

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in their yard and then
the b's that are on

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those flowers and

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compare the
different networks.

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And one thing
we're finding is

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that the floral
diversity is higher in

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the BCA charts and
their SAR and genera

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of B such as Harry
eighties and you serine.

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We're finding more
commonly in BCA charts.

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There is also
psychology research

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done for people and BPH.

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So everyone was sent

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this environmental
identity survey,

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which is a
standardized survey.

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And we looked at how

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their own
personal identity

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changed before and after

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participating
in shutter B,

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we find that
people who are in

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the brain conservation
home program

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hadn't had

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a higher environmental

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identity score to start.

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But that there were
increases in both.

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And I'm not
showing this data,

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but we do have
some evidence that

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people's environmental

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identity is
actually leading

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to environmental action

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in that they're changing

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their behaviors
in response to

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participating in our
citizen science project.

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But before we could do
any of this research,

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we needed to establish

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a formalized
partnership first.

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So what we did is we
got together and bring

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conservation home program

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to identify shared goals.

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Then we agreed on
common principles of

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data sharing and made sure

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to emphasize
participant privacy.

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We formed a legal
partnership and

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established a Memorandum
of Understanding,

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created an IRB
and finally,

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solicited and enrollees
to participate.

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And I will warn you now
if you're interested

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in doing some type of
research like this,

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this process will take

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much longer
than you think,

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especially if you
have any kind of

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medical research

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happening at your
institution,

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all your legal
an IRB stuff

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00:06:44,380 --> 00:06:45,130
is going to be thrown to

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the very bottom
of the pile.

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But beyond the
ecological benefits

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and things like that,

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The bring conservation
home project

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gets benefits as well.

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And the big thing
they get is

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empirical evidence

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on the success of
their program.

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Does a higher
certification level lead

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to increased measures
of biodiversity?

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If the program is working,

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it will really help with

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fundraising and
grant writing.

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Bc age can be a model for

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other programs
getting started.

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And overall, it increases

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outreach about the
project program.

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However, if it's
not working,

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they get a lot
of data on y

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and access to
experts to can

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really help improve the

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certification criteria

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so that the program
works more as intended.

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The participants
benefit as well.

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So they get
increased knowledge

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00:07:38,060 --> 00:07:39,500
about the wildlife
in that garden,

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00:07:39,500 --> 00:07:40,610
especially tax that they

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00:07:40,610 --> 00:07:41,945
might not be as
familiar with.

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00:07:41,945 --> 00:07:43,340
They get a sense
of belonging

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00:07:43,340 --> 00:07:44,854
to a larger community.

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They get pride
in their garden.

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00:07:46,340 --> 00:07:47,480
They get really
excited when I

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text them and I
found a rare B.

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They kinda get some
bragging rights.

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And they also get
photography skills

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for those who are

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00:07:53,570 --> 00:07:55,430
participating
in shutter be.

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00:07:55,430 --> 00:07:57,410
This is a quote,
I got one day in

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00:07:57,410 --> 00:07:59,795
my email, really
unsolicited.

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00:07:59,795 --> 00:08:01,910
I've been able to
educate others about

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00:08:01,910 --> 00:08:02,900
native bees and told

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00:08:02,900 --> 00:08:04,145
them about your research.

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00:08:04,145 --> 00:08:06,275
Also partly be
transceiver research.

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00:08:06,275 --> 00:08:08,060
We're expanding our
garden bed by getting

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00:08:08,060 --> 00:08:11,130
rid of the IV and
building planter beds.

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00:08:13,090 --> 00:08:15,590
There have been
some difficulties

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00:08:15,590 --> 00:08:16,940
of the partnership,
though.

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00:08:16,940 --> 00:08:18,830
Participants definitely
get confused

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00:08:18,830 --> 00:08:20,735
about the rules of
different people involved.

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00:08:20,735 --> 00:08:23,000
I get questions about
mosquito research

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00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,250
and moving up and
certification level.

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And then Dan Pearson,

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00:08:26,270 --> 00:08:27,485
who's the beseech head,

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00:08:27,485 --> 00:08:30,470
gets questions
about my research.

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00:08:30,470 --> 00:08:32,209
Maintaining relationships

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00:08:32,209 --> 00:08:33,440
with personnel
change through

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00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:34,655
the institutions

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00:08:34,655 --> 00:08:36,349
has definitely
been a challenge.

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00:08:36,349 --> 00:08:38,030
And then also
sharing data back

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with participants
in a timely manner.

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Science takes awhile,

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but we need to
make sure to keep

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them engaged
and share back

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little nuggets of
research that we have.

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But overall, I
just wanted to

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highlight that the
partnerships through teen,

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these research
institutions and

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conservation organizations

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really can be
multifaceted.

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They're going to work
best though if they

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meet the goals of all
of those involved.

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The research into
the organization,

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the non-profit, and
the participants.

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But overall,
understanding the ecology

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of these residential areas

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and the people
who are making

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the habitat in
the residential

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00:09:11,855 --> 00:09:13,400
areas is going
to be really

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00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:14,480
important if we want to

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further enhance
urban ecosystems.

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Note that I wanted to

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thank you all
for listening.