Abstract
In August of 2019, citizens from across the state of Georgia, USA, participated in the Great Georgia Pollinator Census (GGaPC). This University of Georgia Extension initiative recruited citizen scientists to count for 15 minutes the number and types of insects visiting pollinator plants. The project was web based and used multiple media strategies to recruit citizen scientists, to educate the participants on the entomology required, and to collect the data generated. WordPress website-building software allowed us to create the project website (<a href="http://ggapc.org/" target="_blank"><em>GGaPC.org</em></a>). This served as the center of the project as it contained project details and educational materials as well as the portal for uploading count data. The social media outlets Facebook and Instagram were used to promote the project and to provide insect identification and pollinator education, and social media memes were created easily using Canva software. MailChimp emailing services assisted us in providing educational e-newsletters and local counting event newsletters to participants and partners. The Zoom online meeting platform allowed our team to meet with partners and Extension offices across the state to share resources and to plan events. More than 4,600 counts were uploaded, documenting more than 131,000 insect visits tallied from 134 Georgia counties including 135 schools. Multimedia tools allowed us to conduct the project with limited personnel on a small budget while providing comprehensive participant education and an extensive project reach.
Highlights
Interest in pollinating insects is high worldwide, and we have seen that interest in our state of Georgia, USA
Social media is effective when it features real people and becomes relatable, and we found, according to Facebook analytics, that our participants responded to our efforts with increased post engagement (Grissa, 2017)
A total of over 4,600 counts were uploaded with more than 131,000 insect visits tallied from 134 Georgia counties
Summary
Interest in pollinating insects is high worldwide, and we have seen that interest in our state of Georgia, USA. A University of Georgia Extension outreach program demonstrated the interest of Georgians in pollinator conservation (Griffin and Braman 2018). Educating Georgia citizens on pollinator health while generating a baseline of Georgia pollinator populations were determined to be dual priorities for the University of Georgia Extension. There has been tremendous growth in the use of citizen science for documenting insect pollinator numbers. The Bumble Bee Watch project records populations of bumble bees (https://bumblebeewatch.org), and Monarchs Across Georgia documents monarch migration (https://eealliance.org/monarch-across-ga). Citizen scientists take ownership of these projects and feel a personal stake in the subject (Miller-Rushing et al 2012). This empowerment may translate into increased conservation activities (Kelly et al 2019)
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