Photo Monitoring

Creating Images of Changing Landscapes with your Photos

Fifteen years ago, Lamberton Lake Fen was at the brink of becoming permanently overrun by the invasive glossy buckthorn. The buckthorn threatened to destroy the endangered plants and animals living there and rid the City of Grand Rapids of a rare urban nature preserve. With the help of hundreds of volunteers the core of the fen has been freed of buckthorn. The picture below shows a striking image of that restoration. Photos like this not only enliven our spirits, they help provide important information about the restoration work on these preserves and help us to be as effective as possible. We want your help to photograph change at several nature preserves so we can continue sharing these success stories.

Add your Photos to a Collage of Change

Signs installed at five different nature preserves will help you to capture pictures of a changing landscape. Your pictures will be used to monitor the progress of volunteers and staff who have worked tirelessly to remove invasive species, restore native plants and help create healthy ecosystems for wildlife and people to enjoy.

Saul Lake Bog Photo Station (thanks to all those who are sending photos!)

How it works:

When you see one of the signs shown below, simply place your camera or your phone in the bracket on the sign and post your photo to Twitter or Instagram, without a filter, with the hashtag #PhotoMonitorLCWM. Or you can email us the photo at lcwm@naturenearby.org and your photo will become part of a real time collage of change.

monitor-sign

Find a photo monitoring station at any of the following locations