Citizen Foresters are in the Field


March 18, 2014

Since February, several community members have joined the City of Melbourne as Citizen Forester volunteers. Right now 10 people are out and about in the city collecting elm leaves from some of our oldest elm trees. The genetic diversity of elms in Melbourne is not yet well understood and we are using our citizens to help improve that understanding. The samples collected by our Citizen Foresters will be used in an elm genetic diversity study that will guide future propagation of replacement elms. We hope that this will be the first of several Citizen Science opportunities on offer. If you are interested in becoming a Citizen Forester, please find out more here(External link).