Dear EwA Friends,
We are pleased to share a new EwA piece: People, Places, Science: Building Urban Ecology Participatory Research Together. Lessons from a Decade of EwA Participatory Science.
In this piece, we reflect on ten years of EwA participatory urban ecology practice and present it as a long-term case study. Drawing on work at sites such as the Middlesex Fells Reservation, Lusitania Meadow, Horn Pond, the Somerville Community Growing Center, and beyond, we show how sustained, place-based observation by local communities can reveal ecological change in urban landscapes.
The piece outlines the principles that guide our work: systems-based urban ecology, care as responsibility, beginning from place and community, epistemic respect, and treating tools and data as commons. It also shows how field protocols such as EwA Pheno Lite, Buggy, Invasive Flora Patrol, phenology walks, and habitat fragmentation surveys grow from specific places, questions, and community practice.
We first shared this work last week in an academic setting at Wellesley College and are planning additional presentations with other institutions. Exciting!
👉 Read the full article here.
We would love to hear your thoughts. You can comment directly on the article page. What resonates most with your own EwA field experience? What would you like to see us explore next in our participatory urban ecology work? The EwA Participatory Science Team | 
