About Making TRACKS...
- The goal of Making TRACKS is to develop a permanent collection of hiking trails throughout North America with a comprehensive list of the most common species found on each. We hope to enhance hiking trails by making them into educational nature trails for beginning naturalists, families and schools (plus provide resources for schools to make their own nature trails on their grounds or in nearby communities).
We believe that conservation starts by learning about the amazing things that are out
in our natural world. This leads to a real sense of investment in the wilds
and the desire to protect them.
- We hope to create a national network of trails with species lists collected by citizen scientists like you on the Making TRACKS site and enhanced with visual identification guides, and educational activities provided by the Exploring Nature Educational Resource.
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Making TRACKS, a division of Exploring Nature Educational Resource, provides species information and illustrations in compiling guides that can be downloaded to take on the trails to identify species.
- Citizen Scientists (you!) can volunteer to identify and document species on your favorite trails. Downloading data collection sheets, you can compile a list of species that can be found on the trail and enter them into the Making TRACKS collection. They can be updated over time. Your species list will be compiled into a nature guide that anyone can download and take with them on the trail.
- Inquiry-based activities and fun things to do are also available for families and schools that want to use the trails for science education enhancement.
