Imagine it is early spring and you are out for a walk in the woods, leaves and twigs crunching beneath your steps. You’re greeted by a pond-like pool that you don’t remember being there last fall. A wood frog splashes in.

You’ve encountered a vernal pool. It is a small, isolated wetland created by snow and ice melt or rain that occurs in forests throughout Michigan and other similar climates around the globe. They provide critical habitats for many growing plants and animals that are crucial to food chains and biodiversity. And by the time summer and fall roll around, they’ve disappeared.

Because these pools are temporary, tracking them is incredibly difficult. There are at least 8,000 vernal pools scattered across Michigan, and likely thousands more. For researchers at Michigan State University, understanding and protecting these fleeting ecosystems is a massive riddle that they cannot solve alone. That’s where the Vernal Pool Patrol comes in.

Over 500 volunteers participate in the Vernal Pool Patrol program, identifying, mapping, monitoring and providing data on vernal pools across the state to assist Michigan State researchers.

“Community scientists are absolutely critical,” says Yu Man Lee, a leader of the Vernal Pool Patrol and conservation scientist with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory and MSU Extension. “There’s no way that any one entity could go out as an agency or an organization and field verify and collect information about all these vernal pools. Without community members, there is no other way to conduct this research.”

It is not the only MSU program where everyday Michiganders are helping with research that impacts the state. Community, or citizen, science projects typically involve nonscientists in the processes, methods and standards of research, with the intended goal of advancing scientific knowledge or application.

Through MSU Extension and community science initiatives, Michiganders across the state are stepping up to contribute directly to scientific research that helps protect Michigan’s lakes, waterways, forests, wildlife and biodiversity. From monitoring vernal pools to tracking bumble bee populations and identifying invasive species, volunteers are helping researchers collect critical environmental data that would otherwise be impossible to gather at scale.

> Read more: How to be a citizen scientist: 5 Michigan projects to join

Science by the people, for the people

As a leading land-grant university, Michigan State is an integral part of Michigan’s success. MSU Extension has a presence in all 83 Michigan counties, and the university plays a huge role across the entire state with its talent pipeline, research and outreach, and extension. When it comes to citizen science projects, MSU benefits from the help of residents across Michigan, who are, in turn, looking out for their own communities.

The Michigan Natural Features Inventory is a prime example. The program has been creating and sharing scientific information on the location and condition of Michigan’s rare species and habitats for more than 40 years. Part of MSU Extension since 2000, the inventory’s team of experts in ecology, botany, zoology and aquatic zoology conduct research and field surveys of plants and animals — like insects, mammals, birds, mussels, snails, reptiles, amphibians and fish — as well as rare or high-quality ecosystems.

The natural features inventory trains volunteers in the methodology and protocols scientists use to identify and collect data on various species and habitats. Along with the Vernal Pool Patrol, community scientists contribute to the Bumble Bee Atlas, Osprey Adopt-A-Nest and the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network. These projects help inform scientific research, aid in land use and conservation planning and provide needed information for decision-makers.

In Michigan, bumble bee species have been on the decline, possibly due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticides, pests and pathogens. The Bumble Bee Atlas collects data on bumble bee communities and habitat assessments. Between March and October of 2024, 419 bumble bees were observed in 31 counties across Michigan, including 14 species.

Ospreys are a valuable indicator species for monitoring the health of large rivers and other water bodies — the birds of prey depend on fish. Ospreys were nearly eradicated from Michigan in the 1900s due to hunting and chemical contaminants, but thanks to conservation efforts, the species is coming back. Volunteers in the Osprey Adopt-A-Nest program surveyed 238 osprey nests in 22 counties across the state in 2024 and 2025.

These projects are vital to the state. Not only is the research important for understanding biodiversity conservation, but reports and information from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory are also used to provide data and consultation to a variety of decision-makers, practitioners and the public.

Caring for Michigan streams and lakes

Peggy Kay lives on Au Sable Lake in Ogemaw County, west of Houghton Lake and Rose City. Kay comes from a family of Spartans. Her mother graduated back when it was Michigan State College, and Kay, her husband and their three children are also MSU alums.

Nowadays, Kay, along with other volunteers, often can be found out on the lake surveying plants and testing the water quality on Au Sable Lake. She does this through the Michigan Clean Water Corps, or MiCorps, a statewide volunteer monitoring program that empowers communities to protect their local inland lakes and streams.

“We want to do right by our lake,” Kay says. “I often reach out to Erick Elgin and Jo Latimore when I have questions, and they are very responsive.” Elgin is a limnologist and water resources educator with MSU Extension. Latimore is the MiCorps director and an aquatic ecologist and outreach specialist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

MiCorps is made up of three programs, all of which are rooted in community science: the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program, the Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (which monitored 332 lakes in 2025) and the Volunteer Stream Cleanup Program.

There are over 11,000 lakes and 36,000 miles of streams in Michigan, and the team at MiCorps is committed to helping Michiganders protect them. The data collected by volunteers helps the MiCorps team, too.

“There is the practical side of it,” Latimore says, “in that there aren’t enough professionals to be in all of these lakes and streams frequently.” Another important benefit of community scientists, according to Latimore, is public engagement. “When people use a resource and care about it,” she says, “they understand it more and are better informed if they want to speak on behalf of it.”

Latimore says volunteers go to townships and municipalities to lobby for water quality protections. Plus, the information from these programs is going directly to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, or EGLE, informing decision-making and helping to identify areas that need more detailed assessments and further actions.

Thanks to the data gathered through MiCorps, Kay and her neighbors are currently working on a targeted management plan to address invasive species in Au Sable Lake.

“I am very proud of my university and its commitment to reaching others in the state and educating our citizens about the importance of clean water and the abundant natural resources that we many times take for granted,” Kay says. “We are truly blessed with an abundance of water and need to keep it accessible for everyone to enjoy.”

Here today, gone tomorrow

Even though vernal pools are temporary, they are an important part of biodiversity and ecology in Michigan’s forests. The pools are critical not only to species, but also as drinking water sources for larger animals. Plus, they help reduce flooding and improve water quality by filtering runoff. And thanks to volunteers in the Vernal Pool Patrol, researchers like Yu Man Lee, who was recently honored for her outstanding contribution to wildlife conservation, are filling the Michigan Vernal Pool Database.

From the Upper Peninsula to southeast Michigan, volunteers are submitting data on the pools. As of February 2026, over 8,600 pools have been mapped in the database and approximately 2,000 of those have been visited.

Lee and her team have begun sharing information from the Vernal Pool Database with state agencies like EGLE and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to help inform protection, regulation and management decisions.

“Volunteers are taking the information that they’ve learned and turning it into real action,” Lee says.

How you can help

At Michigan State, doing research that directly impacts the people of Michigan is a core mission. But as the challenges facing our ecosystems grow, the help of residents is what makes much of that work possible.

Anyone can become a citizen scientist. Together, programs like the Vernal Pool Patrol and the Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program have engaged nearly 1,000 Michiganders. No prior scientific background is required — these programs provide the training and resources necessary to ensure the data collected by members of the public is usable and accurate.

Whether you want to monitor a stream in your neighborhood or track spring frogs in the woods, you can find training schedules and volunteer resources by visiting the Vernal Pool Patrol and MiCorps program websites, or sign up for the Bumble Bee Atlas or Osprey Adopt-A-Nest programs. By contributing just a few hours a season, you can help MSU researchers ensure Michigan’s natural resources are protected for future generations.