Large-scale ecological wetland restorations, such as the Tidmarsh Farms Restoration Project in Massachusetts, generate an unusual opportunity to further the science of ecological restoration and shape public perception of the value of restored wetlands. This talk will introduce Living Observatory (LO), a non-profit 501(c)3 interdisciplinary learning collaborative of scientists, artists, engineers, practitioners. Goals of LO include: to observe, document and interpret change to ecosystem functions as they evolve pre, during and after specific restoration actions; to develop metrics to help agencies and the public evaluate the success of fresh-water ecological restorations; and to support public understanding of relationships between ecological processes, human lifestyle choices, and climate change adaptation. Future researchers submit project proposals to the LO community that articulate goals, methods, and expected outcomes of the particular endeavor. LO welcomes projects that include novel instrumentation; current and past projects have employed low-power environmental sensing, distributed temperature sensing over fiber optic cable (DTS), multi-track audio streaming, infra-red drone photography/video resolved to GIS. LO's growing community of learners are encouraged to meet, share ideas, and evolve research synergies. Every other year, LO researchers share their ideas and their progress at a bi-annual LO Summit. All LO participants agree to LO's shared data policy.

Glorianna Davenport is a Trustee of Tidmarsh Farms, Inc. and co-founder of Living Observatory, a non-profit (501(c)3) collaborative organization focused on telling the long-term story of the Tidmarsh Farms Wetland Restoration in order to advance scientific knowledge and public understanding of wetland ecology. Trained as a documentary filmmaker, Davenport is a co-founder of the MIT Media Lab where she researched innovations in the construction, editing and shared use of video throughout the 1990's and 2000's. Today, in building Living Observatory, Glorianna champions project based learning for science and media innovation in the belief that, working together, we can create experiences that will allow people, individually and collectively, to better understand relationships between ecological processes, human lifestyle choices, and climate change.