Complete hourly datasets for all loggers are available for student research projects. Additional reference loggers are deployed in Eugene, Corvallis, Brownsville, and the Coast Range.
Trail cameras capture wildlife activity across the property. A systematic monitoring protocol is in development. Here are a few highlights from our cameras:
Every week, Bear Creek Explorers run a 10-minute Merlin sound ID session and record any new species. Over time, this builds a picture of the full bird community at Bear Creek Wilderness.
🌿 Connecting Bear Creek to the Bigger Picture
Our Student Research Forest contributes data to community science networks at local, state, and national scales. These connections amplify the value of every observation our BCE students make, feeding into datasets used by the National Weather Service, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USGS, and researchers across Oregon.
Our longest-running community science partnership, started through an Oregon Season Tracker training. Daily precipitation reports from Bear Creek feed into the National Weather Service, NOAA's climate record, and the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University.
Merlin helps our BCE students identify birds by sound during weekly 10-minute sessions. 72 species detected across 53 sessions so far. eBird checklists make our data available to researchers worldwide.
Our Research Forest iNaturalist project captures the full biodiversity of Bear Creek — fungi, plants, insects, amphibians, and more. Research-grade observations feed into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Phenology — nature's calendar. We participated through Oregon Season Tracker and found that informal tracking works well for our program. We record seasonal observations in our weekly field notes. A new leveled version of the app (with simplified questions ideal for youth) is launching in 2026 — we plan to revisit in 2027.
The Bear Creek Explorers have adopted Mile 179 on the Oregon coast. We visit once per year to conduct a marine debris survey and file a general shore report, connecting our inland forest students to coastal stewardship and a network of over 750 groups monitoring the entire Oregon coast.
Two methods, two seasons: in fall, we deploy leaf packs in Bear Creek and retrieve them 3–4 weeks later to sort and identify macroinvertebrates. In spring, we do a D-net kick-sampling survey when the water is warm enough to wade. Both methods assess water quality by looking at what's living in the stream.
OSU Extension
Citizen scientists collect native bee specimens and floral associations.
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Data from iNaturalist · bear-creek-wilderness · updated with each new CSV export ·
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