Long before smartphones and social media made sharing nature observations easy, Dr. W. Austin Squires was pioneering citizen science in New Brunswick.
His bimonthly newsletter “Nature News” created a province-wide network of amateur naturalists who documented everything from bird migrations to flower blooming times. This remarkable publication, which ran from 1950 to 1969, not only created valuable scientific records but also fostered a community that eventually grew into today’s Nature NB, showing how public participation can transform our understanding of the natural world.
Nature News (1950-1969), was a bimonthly publication established by New Brunswick Museum Natural History Curator Dr. W. Austin Squires. Essentially a citizen-science project that preceded the concept, it reported natural history observations from across New Brunswick, in many cases on topics (i.e. flowering phenology, the range and abundance of turtles) solicited by Squires from a network of largely amateur naturalists that he cultivated and encouraged. Nature News played an important role in stimulating interest in provincial natural history, especially birds, at a time when concern for environmental protection was growing world-wide. Nature News, and the naturalists Squires brought together, played a pivotal role in the establishment of the New Brunswick Federation of Naturalists in 1973 (now Nature NB at http://www.naturenb.ca/home/ ). Nature News was superseded by the publication NB Naturalist (1970- present). Initially produced by the New Brunswick Museum (1970-1972), NB Naturalist has been the official publication of Nature NB (http://www.naturenb.ca/nb-naturalist-magazine/ ) since volume 4(1), February 1973.