LoonWeb Cuts Vermont Loon Survey Logging to 45 Seconds as Climate Threats Grow
Updated
Updated · NPR · Jun 20
LoonWeb Cuts Vermont Loon Survey Logging to 45 Seconds as Climate Threats Grow
3 articles · Updated · NPR · Jun 20
Summary
LoonWeb is being rolled out in Vermont to let citizen scientists log loon sightings directly by phone, replacing handwritten notes, voicemails and emails that biologists later had to organize manually.
The app can record a survey in about 45 seconds with GPS tracking, giving researchers faster population data across hundreds of lakes they cannot monitor alone.
That speed matters as climate change brings heavier rainstorms that muddy lakes and make hunting harder for loons; after Vermont’s 2023 flooding, one of two monitored chicks died and the other washed over a dam.
Oil-spill settlement money funded the tool, and Maine Audubon is already testing it this summer, while Vermont researchers hope it can eventually support a national loon database.