Frequently Asked Questions

The most important thing is a passion for pikas and their alpine ecosystem and an excitement to make a difference through science – which you’ve shown by visiting this website!

To become a field volunteer–or Pika Patroller– with the community science program, please keep the following in mind:

• All new volunteers must attend a beginning-of-season training AND commit to conducting at least one site survey during the summer season (more on that below). This is to ensure accuracy amongst all data collected from year to year, and to make sure the limited spots in our Pika Patroller program are reserved for those volunteers with the time and commitment to support the fieldwork. If you’re unable to participate at this level but are still interested in supporting the project, check out other ways to get involved! 
• Most of our sites are at high elevations (8,000’ or more) in the Colorado mountains: an environment that’s subject to extreme winds, dramatic temperature swings, severe thunderstorms, and snow even in the middle of summer. Altitude sickness can be a potential issue. Volunteers must be experienced navigating and trekking to and from these locations.
• Our pika monitoring sites can be anywhere from right off of a paved road to several miles of rough terrain from an established trail. Make sure you’re extremely comfortable with backcountry navigation if you choose any of these harder-to-reach locations.
• Expect your survey to take at least one hour, especially if you are working solo and/or haven’t had much experience with this project. Please factor this into your hiking plans for the day. Your safety (and that of your companions) should always come first. Planning plays a critical role in this, as with all mountain travel. We know how heartbreaking it is to get to a difficult-to-reach site only to be turned back by an afternoon thunderstorm, but safety always comes first!
• For safety purposes, we ask that our volunteers have at least one adult partner with them when conducting surveys. Your partner doesn’t need to be trained as a volunteer, but if they are, feel free to conduct the survey in a team of two! Always make sure someone else knows where you’re going and when to expect your return.

If you regularly hike in Colorado’s high country and are looking for ways to give back to conservation while you’re out there, this is the perfect opportunity!

Each pika project training session focuses on: 

• An introduction to the Colorado Pika Project
• An introduction to climate change and pika ecology
• An introduction to field methods
• An overview of volunteer expectations and safety
• An introduction to navigation
• An overview of how to sign-up and report your data.

Trainings consist of a presentation providing an overview of the program as well as a half-day practical field component. There are slightly different regulations between our three project regions (Rocky Mountain National Park, the Front Range, and the White River National Forest). As such, we ask that volunteers sign up for a field training session in the same region as the project they wish to support.

The Colorado Pika Project currently organizes community science and monitoring in three distinct areas in Colorado: the Front Range, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and the White River National Forest (WRNF). There are some variations between these projects, including a different field protocol for the Front Range project. Permitting is also required for Rocky Mountain National Park Pika Patrollers, which is discussed in the volunteer training.

For now, we are relying on our returning volunteers to survey Front Range sites and aren’t recruiting new folks for this research project. All new volunteers are trained to collect data using the protocol for RMNP & WRNF. While there are a few key differences between these two projects, any volunteer with the right training is welcome to collect data in either of these projects.

As for which sites you should visit in each project, it’s up to you! We have dozens of sites to survey each summer in a variety of locations, and as a volunteer you can select to visit any available site that’s convenient for you. Check out this page for more information about the pika monitoring locations and our data collection methods. 

Once you’ve attended one of our training sessions, the scheduling a visit to a monitoring site is up to you! Our only requirement is that you only conduct your survey once the area you’re observing is completely free of snow. This is for data accuracy (it’s difficult to search for signs of pikas in snowpack!) as well as your safety.

Generally, the pika monitoring season runs from early July to the end of September, although this varies between sites. While you don’t need to have previously visited a site you’d like to survey, it does help to have a general familiarity with the area – including when to expect snowmelt at that elevation.   

We work closely with scientists and researchers in support of ongoing efforts to learn more about the impact of climate change on American pikas. Contact our team for more information, including scientific papers concerning our project.

While we don’t require participants to be fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, we strongly encourage it. The field trainings will be conducted entirely outdoors. If you are exposed to COVID-19 prior to the training or are symptomatic for COVID, we ask that you do not attend unless it has been at least 5 days since you tested positive / started showing symptoms and your symptoms are either gone or improving. For more information, see the Isolation recommendations provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

We will contact training participants in the event of any updates and/or training cancellations.