Coastal Monitoring Volunteer Training

Ever wonder about the changes you see along the shore between visits to the beach? Join us by becoming a Coastal Monitoring Volunteer and help contribute to a long-term citizen science project to document these changes over time.

Barrier beaches are subject to intense impacts from wind, water, and human activity, and can change dramatically over the years. Documenting these changes is important for long-term scientific research projects and can help ecologists make predictions about coastal resiliency and the future of our beaches.

For this training day, Coastal Monitoring Volunteers will learn a simple method used by scientists (called the Emery Method) to measure the contour of the beach from dune to water line. Volunteers will work in pairs to measure and record data. Data collected during surveys will then be entered into a database and synthesized by Trustees ecologists.  Volunteers are encouraged to sign up with a friend or partner, or monitoring partners can be assigned at the training. Once Coastal Monitoring Volunteers are comfortable with the measuring method and data collection, partners will be given a beach profiling site to monitor monthly throughout the year.

Qualifications: Monitoring volunteers must be able to walk short to moderate distances over soft sand and in a variety of weather conditions to reach beach profiling sites. Volunteers should also have adequate eyesight in order to read measurements from a 3m distance.