We urge Congress to restore funding for the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org) for FY 2022 through the U.S. Geological Survey’s Ecosystem Mission Area.

The timing of seasonal events such as leaf-out, flowering, and migration is changing rapidly across the nation, with dramatic consequences to human health, agriculture, natural resource management, tourism, and recreation. An understanding of how the timing of seasonal events – termed phenology – is changing is critical to support climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts as well as more immediate activities such as wildfire management, invasive species management, planting and harvesting, hunting and fishing, managing allergies and other aspects of human health, and maintaining the tourism industry. Our nation needs to increase investment in both western and Indigenous approaches to understanding and responding to changes in phenology, including the continued collection and distribution of data and information to support policy makers, managers, and scientists in understanding immediate and long-term climate change impacts on our nation’s species and ecosystems.

The USA National Phenology Network is the premier national-scale phenology program in the country, with a thriving network of hundreds of academic, agency and Tribal partners who work together to increase our understanding of species response to environmental conditions in innovative and respectful ways. A critical activity of the USA-NPN is to grow and maintain a geographically extensive and taxonomically rich dataset of phenology observations through the phenology observing program, Nature’s Notebook. Hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of volunteers nationwide depend upon the Nature’s Notebook program, including the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and hundreds of formal and informal educational institutions. The phenology data contributed to Nature’s Notebook result in significant contributions to understanding climate change impacts and also support management decisions. The maps, forecasts, and calendars offered by the USA-NPN are widely referenced to schedule management activities and to anticipate the societal and economic impacts of unusually early or late seasonal events.

With its focus on growing and sharing an understanding of phenology and providing high quality and timely data, forecasts, and information, the USA National Phenology Network, with a very modest budget, is highly efficient and effective at meeting the needs of diverse scientific and management communities.

We thank the USGS and other federal agencies for past support and urge robust support for the program through the U.S. Geological Survey’s Ecosystem Mission Area for FY 2022.

Further information

Reading the leaves to track environmental hazards and health, Apr 16, 2021. Eos 102. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EO157181.

The USA National Phenology Network: Big idea, productivity and potential – and now, at big risk, Oct 30, 2020. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 102: e01802. http://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.1802.

Please note: This sign-on letter is designed primarily for individual signatures. We ask that federal employees not use their official position or time to sign on to this letter.