It's a big question, but I'll maybe turn some focus, at least from my perspective, to how the federal government entities can help with that. I would almost look at the federal government entities as really well placed to be the guides and supporters looking at how you can match federal priorities and federal funding programs to the possibility and capacity that can be leveraged by the vast network of citizen scientists, people who are out there.
As an example, if I went out in my local stream and I was really interested in looking after it, and I had a temperature monitor—maybe I just had a thermometer—and I went every day and I wrote down the temperature of the stream, we know that the temperature of streams is changing with climate change. It's important information for knowing how good the water quality and the fish habitat might be to support our fish. But if all I do is write that down in my notebook, take it back and put it on a shelf and tell somebody I'm doing it, it doesn't do anything.
But if we can take that information, plug it into a network and get it to people who can use it to make better decisions, better investments or better choices, it can support management and conservation, and it doesn't cost anything. I'm happy to drive out or walk past my local stream every day and work with my neighbours and say, “We'd better send this information to somebody”.
Right now, we're not organized. We have some programs—the work that Dr. Moran was just speaking of as an example—that have been there for some time and are really good, but it's a fraction of what is possible. If we start to look at it like we look at hockey, we've got lots of hockey going out there, and it feeds up to a great system, but someone has to organize it. I think helping to organize it and then supporting it for the long term—not providing a million dollars and a new program, thinking it's just great, and then going away.... It's just about a standard and providing little bit of support and consistency, and organizing it, and that will go a long way.