Project Budburst was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 13/No. 1, Winter 2009.
For those who wait and watch with great anticipation for the first wildflower to open, Project Budburst may be for you. It’s a national campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of climate change data based on the timing of the first bud bursts and leaves appearing in spring.
Thanks to historical data kept by naturalists and scientists all over the world, we already know that plant species are beginning to awaken earlier in the spring. Aside from tracking climate change and providing data about how the ecological systems that support us are changing in response, wildlife scientists are interested in how changes in plants will affect the animals that depend on them. For instance, an insect emerging from hibernation eager to find its favorite food may discover that the plant is past its usefulness, having bloomed two weeks earlier than usual. Visit budburst.org to sign up.