Backyard Gardeners Keep Tabs on Warming

Children are playing a big role in the project, said Henderson, both at home as well as via teachers who are incorporating the project into their regular curriculum.

"We found that really exciting, to reconnect children with the outside world," said Henderson.

"My kids enjoyed it and I think they learned a good deal," said Jenny Whittaker a teacher at St. Monica Academy in Chicago, where she involved students in a pilot version of the project last year. "They picked their trees and we labeled them."

Then the kids made daily visits to their trees, photographing and drawing pictures of the trees as spring awakened them. In fact, it was almost hard to keep the kids away from their trees, she said. The students later compiled their data and presented it to the school.

"The kids are very interested in global warming," Whittaker told Discovery News, "because they hear so much about it in the news."

Anyone can participate in this year's Project BudBurst, said Henderson, by simply visiting the website to learn about native plants in their area. The project commenced on Feb. 15 and within days had more than 400 registered bud watchers.

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

Project BudBurst

Treehugger.com

National Phenology Network

More on global warming