Removing barriers to citizen science in the name of more and better data about Michigan waterways and watersheds. That's the aim of a bill introduced by Representative Gretchen Driskell. The Saline Democrat says the measure will remove bureaucratic red tape and expensive permitting fees from data collection in our watersheds.
Overview
* A cumbersome and costly permitting process has meant that Michigan policymakers have had to rely on a limited dataset about the watershed, with data collected by paid staff scientists.
* HB 5043 would pave the way to introduce voluntary, citizen-science as a valuable tool for monitoring watershed health through CrowdHydrology, potentially gathering significantly more data at a greatly reduced cost to the state.
* Rep. Gretchen Driskell introduced HB 5043 in order to allow Michigan to be a pioneer in using citizen-science to collect critical data, and she feels that the proper checks and balances exist to make it effective.
