Engaging youth in public lands monitoring: opportunities for enhancing ecological literacy and environmental stewardship

The US Forest Service has a long history of youth conservation education. We investigated U.S. Forest Service citizen science programs that involve secondary school students in field collection of monitoring data to understand (1) how the programs integrated science and environmental education and (2) whether these programs advance ecological literacy and environmental stewardship. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the program leads, teachers, and students. Program leads and students said programs produced reliable data and met monitoring and other U.S. Forest Service stewardship objectives. Although these programs varied in design and objectives, our findings suggest these programs were incorporating both science and environmental education, and there is some indication they are creating ecological literacy among participants. Students exhibited environmental stewardship to some degree as a result of all programs, but the extent of this is tied to programs' objectives and design.