USA NPN National Phenology Network

Taking the Pulse of Our Planet

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Sky Jacobs

Partner With Us!

We are keen to partner with organizations that share our commitment to collecting and sharing phenology information and inspiring individuals to connect with nature throughout the seasons.

By partnering with the USA National Phenology Network your organization stands to gain:

  • Greater visibility for your organization and your phenology-related efforts
  • Connections to vibrant educator and research communities and opportunities for further collaboration
  • See all the services provided below, and learn more about implementing Nature's Notebook in your community.

Interested?

If you are interested in estalishing a formal partnership relationship with the USA-NPN please contact partners@usanpn.org. We'd love to talk with you!

The USA-NPN National Coordinating Office may be able to host and maintain a basic page on the USA-NPN website for your organization. These pages serve as a mechanism for members of an organization to become familiar with other phenology-related activities already taking place within the organization as well as ways to share information among others within the organization.

To explore the possibility of developing a page for your organization, please contact the NCO Partnerships Coordinator.

We can provide the USA-NPN and the Nature's Notebook logos for use on your website and outreach materials.

Nature's Notebook Use Policy.

Low and high resolution USA-NPN logos

Please contact the NCO Partnerships Coordinator before using the USA-NPN logo and please follow the USA-NPN Communications Standards.

 

All active USA-NPN partnering organizations are listed on the Partners page with a description of the nature of the partnership.

For more information on establishing a formal partnership with the USA-NPN, please contact partners@usanpn.org.

The USA-NPN NCO provides short phenology-related updates and interesting pieces in a bi-monthly newsletter to registered participants and partner contacts. Text from these newsletters may be repurposed for inclusion in your organization's newsletters. We can also provide text on topics including "what is phenology?", "what is the USA-NPN?", and "how can I participate?"

Sign up to receive USA-NPN NCO newsletters.

As appropriate, the National Coordinating Office of the USA-NPN can provide letters of support for grant proposals incorporating phenology data collection and efforts aligned with the USA-NPN Mission
 
Please contact the USA-NPN Partnerships Coordinator for further information. Please allow plenty of lead time before the letters or proposals are due.

The USA-NPN National Phenology Database can serve as the long-term archive for phenology data collected by members of partnering organizations. Several current USA-NPN partners, including the Arbor Day Foundation, Monarch Watch, and HoneyBeeNet, are housing phenology records in the National Phenology Database.

Use of Nature's Notebook standards are encouraged; data collected following these standards can be viewed using USA-NPN visualization tools. Data collected not following Nature's Notebook standards can also be archived in the National Phenology Database but will not be accessible through USA-NPN visualization tools.

For further information, please contact partners@usanpn.org.

Our web services allow participants in partners' programs to contribute data to Nature's Notebook without leaving the partner's website. A partner develops a user interface on the partner website which uses the USA-NPN web service to direct the data to the National Phenology Database. The web service offers the following functions:

  • register a user
  • register a site
  • search our list of plant and animal species
  • register individual plants
  • access plant and animal phenology observing protocols
  • enter phenology observations

Please contact the NCO for more information.

Collaborating Organizations, Collaborating Projects, and Geographic Affiliates of the USA National Phenology Network are invited to adapt and implement Nature's Notebook as appropriate to meet local needs and to encourage their members to participate.

We encourage you to contact us at partners@usanpn.org to learn more about implementing Nature's Notebook on a local or regional scale.

We can partner with you to engage Nature's Notebook participants in collecting observations on your target species.

Through Nature’s Notebook, the USA-NPN offers scientifically-vetted data collection protocols and infrastructure, mechanisms to quickly reach out to hundreds to thousands of potential contributors, and online data download and visualization tools. In return, USA-NPN requests that partnering researchers provide Nature’s Notebook participants that contribute to their effort with periodic updates and summaries to demonstrate value of their efforts.

If you are interested in exploring the potential to partner with the USA-NPN in this way, please visit our Campaigns Request page.

If you would like to share an historical or contemporary phenology dataset, you can add it to our legacy dataset registry. The registry maintains a list of datasets, permissions for sharing them, and information on how to access them. These datasets are searchable by taxonomic group, phenophase, format, and other relevant identifiers. This module allows valuable historical datasets that may otherwise be lost to be archived and made available for researchers and decision-makers to access. The USA-NPN plans to develop the capacity to host phenological datasets collected according to a variety of methods in the future.

If you have phenological datasets you would like to register, please visit the USA-NPN legacy data registry.

 

 

USA-NPN National Coordinating Office staff frequently posts to Twitter. Partners can follow us on Twitter and the USA-NPN NCO can include short phenology-related pieces from partner organizations in these postings. 

The USA-NPN also maintains a Facebook page. The USA-NPN NCO can post short phenology-related pieces and links from partner organizations on this page.

The USA-NPN features news in the field of phenology on the USA-NPN homepage. We can post links to partner announcements and phenology-related efforts here.

USA-NPN National Coordinating Office (NCO) staff can host training webinars for members of your organization. The content of these webinars can be tailored to meet your organization's needs. Please coordinate with the NCO Partnerships Coordinator if you are interested in arranging for a training webinar for your organization.

 

We used a rigorous process to develop the criteria to select the species that appear on the list of recommended species for Nature's Notebook. However, we are constantly adding species to our lists based on special needs of participating scientists and organizations. It may be possible for us to develop observation protocols and online information for species that are of special interest to your organization; please submit your request (you must create an account or log in, first).

Our online data visualization tool allow you to compare observations across sites, through time, and across species. You can also view phenology observations in the context of climate data. 
 
This tool can be a great way to demonstrate to participants how their observations compare to others in the database. 
 
 

The USA-NPN offers several types of communication and outreach materials, including fact sheets, information sheets, brochures, and posters. You are welcome to modify these materials to suit your program and to include your program's logo, as appropriate.

We can also work with a partnering organization to add information on phenology, the USA-NPN, and Nature's Notebook to your materials, as appropriate.

We offer the capacity for many observers taking phenology observations on the same individual plants to each submit observations from their own accounts. The account administrator has access to all observations. This functionality has been implemented in locations including botanical gardens, neighborhood phenology trails, and nature centers. 

Learn more about shared sites in Nature's Notebook (or download as a 2-page document)

Learn how to get your group set up with shared sites. 

See map of all shared sites.

 

Track phenology-friendly grants and key deadlines using the USA-NPN Funding Opportunities tool.

We offer the capacity to upload many phenological observations to the National Phenology Database at a time. Records that are suitable for bulk upload are those that follow USA-NPN standards and could otherwise be added to the National Phenology Database via the Nature's Notebook interface. If you are interested in learning more about this capacity, please contact us.

Nature’s Notebook offers opportunities for place-based, hands-on learning, provides a collaborative platform for site-based educators, promotes cross-subject engagement while addressing standards of learning, and can be used to identify and answer local scientific research questions addressed by many natural resource, volunteer and gardening groups.

We offer curriculum resources for Nature’s Notebook as well as an Educator’s Clearinghouse with other phenology education resources.