Training and volunteer opportunities for 2021

Community Science Projects (adapted from the OSU Master Gardener Coordinators’ blog, December 2020):

Community science projects, such as climate or invasive species tracking, are reliant on observant volunteers on the ground who are able to report back findings. In 2016, we developed guidelines to encourage OSU Master Gardener Volunteers to engage in community science projects and to have those hours count towards volunteer hours. These guidelines require that community science projects must:

• Align with the Master Gardener educational mission of discovering and disseminating research-based gardening information,
• Advance one or both of the flagship programs of the OSU Extension Master Gardener program: sustainable gardening and/or home and community food production,
• Involve participation on one or more levels of the community science typology. These levels are (from least to most involvement): crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, participatory science, collaborative science.

Here are Oregon and national community science projects which are approved for indirect volunteer hours with the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program as of December 2020. Hours which you spent collecting and submitting data can count as hours. When reporting volunteer hours associated with participation in approved community science projects, volunteers should report in the category of ‘Citizen Science’ (indirect volunteer hours).

Want to know if another community science project qualifies for Master Gardener volunteer hours?

Contact Erika.

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Get ready for 2021!

Our 2021 Elevated Master Gardener Training is coming up soon! Keep an eye on your email for registration dates and information for the skills-building courses (January – March), the Culture of Gardening Series (May – June), and the Statewide Horticulture Series (second Tuesday of each month via Zoom, 3 – 4 pm PST).

Click here for dates and other information for the Elevated Master Gardener Training, public horticulture class series, and more.