What is the Pittsburg Backyard Nature Project?
Project Goals: With more people living in cities, our research group is interested in studying how we can make our cities more biodiverse and sustainable. Backyard gardens can offer a substantial amount of biodiversity, like birds, butterflies and flowers! We are interested in evaluating how gardening practices impact the bird and butterfly species in residential backyards, from homeowners to renters. Our goal is to understand how residents make landscaping decisions and what plants are put in gardens. We hope to use this information to educate residents on how their gardening practices can impact local wildlife communities, with the goal of increasing the city's biodiversity.
Project Methods: This project is run by Katie McMurry, a graduate student in the Pittsburg State University Biology Department. She will need to visit your backyard 3-4 times during the summer months (May - August) to determine what birds, butterflies, and plants are in your backyard. If you decide to volunteer your property, Katie will contact you to talk a little more about the project. She will also set up dates and times that best work for you to come visit your backyard. During the project, we also ask if you could complete a short survey to tell us a little about yourself and how you prefer to manage your backyard "habitat".
Incentive: At the end of the study, two participants will be randomly selected to receive a $25 Walmart giftcard to say thank you for volunteering!
Project Methods: This project is run by Katie McMurry, a graduate student in the Pittsburg State University Biology Department. She will need to visit your backyard 3-4 times during the summer months (May - August) to determine what birds, butterflies, and plants are in your backyard. If you decide to volunteer your property, Katie will contact you to talk a little more about the project. She will also set up dates and times that best work for you to come visit your backyard. During the project, we also ask if you could complete a short survey to tell us a little about yourself and how you prefer to manage your backyard "habitat".
Incentive: At the end of the study, two participants will be randomly selected to receive a $25 Walmart giftcard to say thank you for volunteering!