Pine forest along Arizona Trail

About Saguaro National Park

Chronolog Environmental Monitoring Project: Saguaro National Park is interested in long-term changes to its desert and forest plant communities. We are partnering with Chronolog, an environmental monitoring project that is powered by citizen scientists. Chronolog is a web-based system, utilizing a crowdsourced photo time lapse of each ecosystem. The Arizona Trail station at 8000 feet is the first of several planned in the park during the next few years. Hikers along the trail can now help the park keep track of how the ponderosa pine forest is responding following the 2020 Spud Rock Fire. Ponderosa pine is fire adapted, and the fire burned along the base of the trees and killed young trees, but did not harm the large pines. Through each month of photos, we hope to track changes in the forest understory over time. How to Participate: At the Chronolog photo station, prop your cell phone or camera on the bracket and take a photo. Then, email it to Chronolog, and your photo will be added to the time lapse of the ecosystem. Upon receiving the picture, Chronolog will automatically send an email response with the time lapse video of the site and an explanation as to why that site is being monitored.