Local Environment Attachment and the Possibility of Using Citizen Science Approaches to Measure Firefly Populations in Time and Place

While the number of conservation projects has increased domestically and worldwide, many environment education programs have failed to fulfill their goals of encouraging the citizens to actively adopt pro-environment behaviors. To investigate the potential correlation between people’s environment attachment and people’s tendency to perform pro-environment behaviors, a survey was conducted in the rural part of Wayne County, OH in 2009. The result of the survey research shows a significant correlation between people’s attachment to the natural environment and their tendency to participate in certain kinds of pro-environment behaviors. Such finding supplements the previous research on the relationship between place attachment and pro-environment behaviors.;The survey results from my 2009 survey show that these local citizens tend to associate fireflies with good environment quality. A literature review yielded little evidence to support or reject such hypothesis. One major reason for the lack of research on the relationship between fireflies and the natural environment was because of the lack of suitable technology to monitor firefly activities in the field. I developed a new timed sequential digital photographic method to monitor firefly flashing activities in their natural habitats. Such method has potential for engaging citizens into environment education programs. I used this method to collect data on the West Badger Farm near Wooster, OH in 2009. The results showed that this method could capture the flashing activities of different firefly species and was sensitive to the changes of the flashing activities. The two species of fireflies I studied showed similar responses to climatic factors, but different responses to landscape types and farming practices. The data also suggested that these two firefly species were active at the same time during the night, contrary to previous studies that classified them into different active groups (“early-active” vs. “late-active”).