Can Citizen Scientists Be Our First Line Of Defense In Environmental Disasters?

It can be months before the true experts finally get into an area affected by disasters like oil spills, but there are thousands of concerned citizens interested in documenting what’s happened. The problem is: We never use their data.

How do you assess the impact of a large oil spill? Not easily, says Sabrina McCormick. If it’s like the Gulf disaster, the oil will have spread far and wide, and the effects will be lingering and insidious. It’ll take scientists years to take readings, and even then, their conclusions are likely to miss a lot.

McCormick, an associate professor at George Washington University, has studied the scientific response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. She says most reports tend to downplay the effects on the environment and human health because of a lack of good data for many areas.

Instead of traditional data-gathering, McCormick thinks disaster responders should turn to citizen-scientists, who can provide more timely, granular information. "The data collected through crowd-sourcing is generally more time-sensitive. It’s able to fill a gap in the data-collection process that otherwise wouldn’t get filled," she says.

Co.Exist - www.fastxoexist.com 

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Printable Data Form - Memory Aid

What was that I saw again...?


Having trouble remembering the details for your report before you get home?  Want to have a paper form to take notes on about the event?  Download the document below to help you take notes on paper in the field.  Simply print them out, fold up a copy in your backpack or hip-sack, and you're ready whenever you come across an event.

WHER Data Entry Aid

Are you wondering what the data field definitions are?  Here is a document which lists of the fields and a brief description for each.  Still have questions unanswered about the data entry process or field descriptions?  Contact us - wher [at] wdin.org or use the Feedback link at the bottom of every WHER page.

WHER Data Field Descriptions

How Do I Create a WHER Account?

How to Set Up an Account

Do you want to get involved and help researchers gain a better understanding of wildlife disease?  Follow these simple steps to create and confirm an account in WHER.

1. Go to http://www.whmn.org/wher/users/add
2. Enter the required fields and optional fields where you like.
3. If you're signing up for a volunteer group, check the box next to the group name. If you're just joining as an individual, you can skip this step.
4. Click the Save button to save your account details.
5. Go check your email! You should receive an email from wher@wdin.org with a link to click to confirm your account.

Need some troubleshooting help?
If the confirmation email never arrives, email us at wher@wdin.org to help get your account activated. Sometimes your email spam folder is routed important messages on accident; check in this folder if your email provider auto-filters your spam.

Notification to WHER Users: Create New Accounts Now Fixed

Late last week the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) was experiencing some technical problems, which was preventing users from creating new accounts. This problem has now been fixed.

WHER is still in beta development and we expect other minor problems to arise as people use the system. If you are experiencing difficulties or having questions about WHER, please contact us at wher@wdin.org

The WHER Team

Notification to WHER Users: Unable to Create New Accounts

Currently, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) is experiencing some technical problems. The system is unable to complete creating new accounts. If a user attempts this, they will get the following message:

* An error was encountered when we tried to send you an account confirmation error message.

The WHER team is working on the problem and will resolve it as quickly as possible. When it is fixed, we will post another announcement.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The WHER Team

Why do I need to create an account before I submit a report?

Most of the time, submitters should not expect to receive any follow-up information after reporting an event to WHER. There is simply not enough manpower to investigate every single animal death. HOWEVER, the information you submit, when used in aggregation with other user's single observations, begin to create an overall baseline of mortality incidence information.

In the event there are specific questions pertaining to your submitted report from a natural resources agency or an authority in the jurisdiction where your report was submitted, and you have checked the check-box in the 'My Account' section of WHER that says: ' I authorize project or natural resources personnel to contact me regarding my reports,' you may be contacted in order to get additional information if you are willing to provide it.

It is also possible that WHER personnel may contact you if we have questions about your report such as encountering any technical issues with your submissions or problems with your account information. Therefore, it is important that we have users create accounts in WHER and provide email address and phone contact details.

Thank you for participating in WHER!

WHER - down for maintenance 02/10/2011

In order to perform database modifications this Thursday, February 10, 2011, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) application will be temporarily offline.  The outage is planned for early in the morning (approximately 7am CST) and we hope to bring the site back up as quickly as possible. 

Users will still be able to access the WHER URL (http://www.wher.org), but a temporary page will be up in its place until the system is brought back online.

Thank you for understanding!