I love the idea of the SOD Blitz partnership between the UC
Berkeley science community, the USDA Forest Service, and “citizen scientists”
to gather data on Sudden Oak Death. A similar idea has been used to gather
information about migration of birds, butterflies, and fish. It also reminds me
of the crowdsourcing projects run on the web, using members of the online community
to solve complex problems.
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| Tip blight symptoms on tanoak caused by P. ramorum. Photo by Joseph O'Brien (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). |
SOD Blitz participants are trained to look for symptoms, and
to conduct testing on specimens. The SOD Blitz project website provides information
on training dates, symptoms, testing, and meetings. The 2014 Spring SOD Blitz
is currently being organized, so the training schedule has not yet been published. If you are interested in participating in a Blitz, check the website regularly for updates. In
the meantime, there are plenty of workshops and lectures scheduled for Fall
2013.
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