Climate tracker initiative launches in Charlottetown and Stratford

The following is a media release issued by the City of Charlottetown on April 20, 2022:

The City of Charlottetown, in partnership with the Town of Stratford and the School of Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), has launched Climate Trackers—a new citizen-science based sustainability initiative. Community members are being invited to note their observations related to seasonal changes, weather, plants and wildlife, drainage, flooding and more around their home or local neighbourhood. The goal of the initiative is to use data from the community contributions to better understand the local impacts of climate change.

Climate Trackers is a family-friendly initiative that does not require any previous science or data collection experience. As an individual, or a group, participants will be asked to note observations from around their property or local neighbourhood on a regular basis—for example, this could be daily, weekly or anytime something in nature catches the participants attention.

Registered Climate Trackers will receive a hard copy Climate Diary along with a Nature Guide that features colour photos and descriptions of plants and animals on PEI to help identify and track their observations. To contribute to local climate science, participants are asked to add these observations to the UPEI Climate Diary app. The inputs will be used by climatologists at UPEI for research purposes and by municipal staff to help inform climate change adaptation efforts. To learn more and report observations to the app, visit diary.peiclimate.ca.
 
Interested in learning more? The City of Charlottetown, along with its partners, is hosting an information session on May 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the UPEI Faculty Lounge in SDU Main Building. An introductory presentation with Frequently Asked Questions is also available online. To learn more, visit charlottetown.ca/climatetrackers or townofstratford.ca.
 
Throughout the year, participants will also be invited to learn more about nature and local climate change impacts through free local workshops and other activities. Upcoming workshops are open to all residents of both municipalities and include:

•    Signs of Spring Outdoor ‘Walkshop’ at Robert Cotton Park, 57 Burnbury Road, Stratford, Saturday, May 28, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
•    PEI Invasive Species and Climate Change at the PEI Farm Centre, 420 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Tuesday, May 31, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
•    Local Climate Change Indicators at West Royalty Community Centre, 1 Kirkdale Road, Charlottetown, Wednesday, June 8, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

To register, visit charlottetown.ca/climatetrackers. Information session and workshop participants will also be invited to enter a ballot for their chance to win nature-related prizes such as $50 garden centre gift cards, bird feeders, and binoculars.

To become a Climate Tracker and to learn more, visit charlottetown.ca/climatetrackers.

Quotes:

“The Climate Trackers program is an inventive, homegrown approach to raising awareness about our changing climate and its local impacts. Protecting our natural environments is a responsibility we all share, and this is a fantastic opportunity to contribute as citizen scientists to this collective endeavour.”
 —Philip Brown, Mayor, City of Charlottetown

“Programs such as Climate Trackers are an important part of developing community minded residents. A program like this encourages residents to be aware of their environment, take ownership of the environment around them and to become a citizen scientist. The data they can help us collect is useful in watching for trends over time and for one-off or unique observations that may indicate a change which the Town can adapt to as needed. I encourage all residents to join me and sign up.”
—Steve Ogden, Mayor, Town of Stratford

“We're excited to partner with the City of Charlottetown and Town of Stratford on the Climate Trackers initiative. To track changes in climate, researchers need observations, monitoring, and data sets to be collected. Engaging community members as citizen scientists allows us to collect information on a larger scale, making it useful in identifying climate change trends and developing the management plans needed to adapt to a changing climate.”
 —Dr. Adam Fenech, associate professor, UPEI School of Climate Change and Adaptation, and director, UPEI Climate Lab

For media inquiries, please contact:

Carly Siopis
Communications Coordinator
City of Charlottetown
902.393.9070
csiopis@charlottetown.ca
 
Wendy Watts
Community and Business Engagement Manager
Town of Stratford
902.569.1995
wwatts@townofstratford.ca