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Winter Harbor, ME -- May 10, 2006. Acadia Partners for Science and Learning
today announced that it has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Davis
Conservation Foundation in support of its work in engaging citizens in
scientific research at Acadia National Park. The funds will be used in
combination with funds raised from private donors and other sources to support
research that explores the use of volunteers as an essential element in
scientific inventory and monitoring work in the Park.
"The grant from the Davis Conservation Foundation will enable us to
extend the work that we have begun with help and financial support from our
board, L.L. Bean, and Friends of Acadia," said Denny O'Brien, Executive
Director of Acadia Partners. "It permits us to add an important focus on
volunteer engagement to the research that we are supporting for this year and
for the coming year." Creating comprehensive inventories of the various species of plants and
animals in and around the Park is an essential part of managing and conserving
the Park's ecosystem. The inventories need to be coupled with long-term
monitoring that tracks changes in species populations and distributions and
changes in ecosystem conditions. Unfortunately, long-term monitoring can be
costly, simply because it is long-term. Also, traditional sources of support for
science often focus more on new research at the cutting edge of science, leaving
less funding available for basic but essential inventory and monitoring efforts.
Acadia Partners is committed to solving these problems by developing support for
inventory and monitoring from individuals who care deeply about the Park and who
are committed to conservation. Further, Acadia Partners proposes to bring down
the cost of monitoring by using volunteers, when appropriate, to undertake some
of the monitoring tasks.
The grant from the Davis Conservation Fund will be used to support research
into the reliability of measurements that depend on volunteer work and to
encourage more research into use of volunteers. These new initiatives, with
their focus on citizen engagement in research and on effective use of
volunteers, build on the broader research support provided by L.L. Bean, with
the help of Friends of Acadia, through the L.L. Bean Acadia Research Fellowship
program..
The funds will also be used as a key component in a broader effort to create
ways for citizens to provide direct financial support for Park research. This
effort to create new ways to enable financial engagement between
conservation-minded citizens and the Park's research work is a primary focus for
Acadia Partners and is enabled by seed funding support from the Acadia Partners
board of directors.
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