It won’t be long before we smell the sweet scent of lilac blossoms drift in through the screened windows and see shades of pinks and purples dot the landscape. If you have a lilac bush in your yard, neighborhood, or a favorite park, you can join others in tracking the leaf-unfurling, bud-forming, and blossom-opening of these bushes for a nationwide scientific project of the USA National Phenology Network called Track a Lilac.
Through Citizen Science Projects, anyone can conduct research from almost anywhere and record data that goes directly toward local or global scientific research. There are over 3,000 global citizen science projects. There are projects where senior citizens can make observations from the window of their room, families can research from their kitchen, schools can research from their playground, or local interest groups can research together as partners. For more information on Citizen Science projects, you can call the F.L. Schlagle library branch at 913-295-8250 ext. 2.