Anyone with a smartphone can contribute to citizen science conservation by photographing ecosystem recovery at marked monitoring sites in national parks.

A new citizen science conservation platform called RegenReach invites park visitors to document forest regeneration using their phones. The approach provides scientists with consistent visual data showing how landscapes change over time. Jasper National Park in Alberta deployed the system after devastating wildfires burned 33,000 hectares in the summer of 2024.

Parks Canada installed permanent photo monitoring stations at key locations throughout the burn zone. Each station features a marker showing exactly where to stand and how to frame the photograph. Visitors take pictures using the RegenReach app, which uploads images automatically to a database accessible to researchers and park managers.

The wildfire destroyed significant portions of the Jasper townsite and surrounding forests. Understanding how quickly vegetation returns helps managers make decisions about trail access, wildlife habitat protection, and ecosystem restoration interventions. Traditional monitoring requires staff to visit sites repeatedly, which is costly and limits the frequency. Crowdsourced photography multiplies the observation capacity without increasing budgets.

RegenReach was developed by researchers at the University of Alberta and the University of Northern British Columbia. The platform builds on decades of repeat photography, a technique used in ecological research. Historical photographs paired with modern images reveal changes in glaciers, forests, and wildlife populations. The challenge has always been ensuring that photos capture the same view from the same position.

The marked stations solve this problem. A post with a distinctive design shows photographers exactly where to position themselves. Instructions specify camera height and angle. The app provides a ghost image overlay showing the previous photograph. Users align their camera view with the overlay before capturing the new image. This consistency makes the photographs scientifically useful.

Jasper represents the platform’s most prominent deployment, but citizen science conservation through photo monitoring extends to other parks and protected areas. The RegenReach lists monitoring sites in multiple locations across Canada. Each site tracks different ecological processes, ranging from forest succession to glacier retreat and wetland changes.

The Jasper deployment includes sites that track immediate post-fire conditions and others that document long-term recovery patterns. Some stations are located in areas where fires burned intensely, killing most of the vegetation. Others occupy locations where the fire moved quickly through the understory but left mature trees standing. This variety helps scientists understand how fire severity affects regeneration rates.

Early photographs from Jasper show charred stumps and blackened soil. Images from fall 2024 began capturing the first signs of recovery. Native fireweed appeared quickly, its purple blooms visible in photos taken just months after the fire. Aspen suckers emerged from surviving root systems. Lodgepole pine seedlings sprouted from cones that opened only after exposure to intense heat.

Photo monitoring captures information beyond what researchers specifically seek. A scientist studying tree regeneration might focus on counting seedlings. But the photographs also show wildlife trails, erosion patterns, invasive species colonization, and weather impacts. This incidental documentation proves valuable for understanding ecosystem complexity.

The platform requires minimal technical knowledge. Users download the free app, visit a monitoring site, and follow prompts to capture properly aligned images. Contributors can browse images from any site in the network, seeing how their photograph adds to the sequence.

The platform includes educational components explaining what the photographs reveal. When users upload images, they see information about the ecological processes visible in their photo. This turns casual participation into learning opportunities. Contributors understand not only that they are helping, but also specifically what their contribution reveals about ecosystem function.

Parks Canada plans to maintain the Jasper monitoring stations for decades. Forest recovery after severe fire takes 50 to 100 years. Young trees need time to mature into seed-producing adults. The photo record will document this entire succession, creating an unprecedented visual dataset of ecological change.

Parks Canada collaborates with more than 20 Indigenous groups through the Jasper Indigenous Forum, incorporating traditional fire stewardship knowledge into management decisions. Traditional plant knowledge and fire ecology are included in the guided walks at Jasper.

Other organizations have deployed similar photo monitoring for specific purposes. Researchers track glacier changes in mountain parks. Coastal programs document beach erosion and dune succession. Urban ecology projects follow green space development. RegenReach provides a standardized platform that works across these different applications.

Climate change makes long-term monitoring increasingly important. Ecosystems respond to shifting temperature and precipitation patterns. Understanding these changes requires data spanning years and decades. Citizen science conservation provides a sustainable mechanism for maintaining observation networks over the necessary timeframes.

Jasper’s recovery from the 2024 wildfire will unfold over generations. The citizen science conservation network ensures this process gets documented completely. Future researchers will have visual records showing exactly how forests responded to severe fire under early 21st-century climate conditions. This information will inform management decisions in parks facing similar disturbances worldwide.