FOOTPRINTS-CITSCI officially kicked off in January of this year, and we launched straight into our first field season. Winter 2024 was dedicated to building the tools, strengthening the connections, and developing the citizen science data collection protocols that will carry us into our fully operational field season next winter, in 2025.

Now that we've transitioned into spring, we're looking back to take stock of what we've accomplished in the first few busy months of FOOTPRINTS-CITSCI.

Some of the highlights include:

Building and launching a new data collection tool for photographic data of animal tracks. We appreciate the enthusiastic support of volunteers around Norway who tested our photo data collection tool and gave us valuable feedback for improving it to be ready for rolling out with our citizen science program next year! Have you tried it yet? There may not be snow on the ground anymore, but you can still open it up and give it a try (and give us your thoughts!).

Piloting our data collection protocols with volunteers and expert guides. Thanks to the fantastic field-based programs run by FOOTPRINTS partners Wild Lab Projects and iTrollheimen, we've gathered critical information to help us develop a standardized, replicable data collection method to roll out across multiple field sites next winter. And in the meantime, all the preliminary data we've collected is being put to use for building our data management protocol, training our machine learning image recognition models, and will be incorporated into future analyses.

Getting to know our core field sites. We spent some time connecting with land managers in our three core field sites and getting out into the field (by foot and by ski) to scope out the best places to center our data collection efforts as we scale up our citizen science program. We can't wait to launch our full programming to help visitors connect on a deeper, more nature-rooted level with these beautiful wild places while contributing to research that supports their management and protection.