2024 WVDNR firefly survey

Your collaboration will help biologists monitor the population of native species

Have you ever wanted to be part of a team studying native wildlife? Now you can combine your love of nature with your passion for discovery by helping the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources gather information for wildlife research.

Citizen science, also known as community science, is a form of crowdsourcing in which the public voluntarily collects data as part of ongoing scientific research for an organization. You don’t need to have a degree in wildlife biology – just a desire to learn and the ability to follow simple instructions. In this case you’ll be assisting the WVDNR with data collection on the state’s populations of several native species.

The WVDNR is re-evaluating the state status of all our species as part of the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan revision. Your data is used to calculate a species’ area or occupancy and extent of occurrence in the state, both of which directly feed into the determination of species’ status ranking. Now, are you ready to put your citizen scientist observations to work? Let’s go!

WVDNR currently has four studies available for input by citizen scientists. They are fireflies, hellbender and mudpuppy, timber rattlesnakes and otters.

In addition to the above, other citizen surveys are available, including: bowhunter survey, deerhunter survey, hunting outlook and mast survey, spring gobbler season survey and a trapper survey.

Here's the link to the 2020 WVDNR firefly survey.

There's an explainer on that page.