STEP 1: Identify a tract of undeveloped land (such as a park) to be studied.
Your study area should be small enough to inspire a sense of ownership yet complex enough to support several programs. It should be easily accessible to a large number of people. Remember, the ultimate goal is to inspire people to explore their own backyards. The area should not be so unique or wild that the enthusiasm and techniques developed do not carry over into more familiar surroundings. Decide upon a convenient place to house the equipment and administration of your program. Be sure to coordinate your program intentions with the agency or party who owns and manages the land.

STEP 2: Determine program needs.
What is known about the natural history of the area? What are the area's mysteries? What are the needs for new resource surveys or monitoring projects? Is there a need for greater public enthusiasm and support for or education about those efforts already ongoing? Approach local nature clubs, universities, or resource agencies who may already be conducting studies on the land or who would have an interest in doing so. Coordinate with them regarding their needs for assistance and your interest in public science education. Be sure that any volunteer support or educational programs that you organize enhance, rather than detract from, any research efforts.

STEP 3: Establish partners.
Your best partners will be local experts who are interested in coordinating new programs on the land or researchers already monitoring the area who are open to volunteer assistance. Such individuals may be affiliated with local natural history clubs which are often full of people with professional backgrounds and dedicated amateurs who are retired, enthusiastic, and available to volunteer some time. Universities and government agencies often have personnel dedicated to public education outreach. At the very least, such assistance is often in the agency's mission statement. A well organized program can attract an employee from such an agency to dedicate time in order to fulfill that aspect of the agency's mission.

Consider what incentives you may be able to offer agency coordinators, university professors, or nature club volunteers. Being involved in an original study, having access to equipment or storage space for specimens, or providing volunteers are all good incentives to develop and offer. Start by inviting these experts out to conduct preliminary surveys. Collect some data to pique their interest and public interest.

Consider permanent data collecting stations. Interested agencies will often install these for free if volunteer monitoring and data collecting is assured. Is there some aspect about the land that would be of particular interest to the National Weather Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, local ecosystem monitoring groups, or wildlife agencies?

STEP 4: Decide on your program priorities.
Your priorities may include studies or monitoring efforts that are currently underway for which you organize volunteer support and provide a platform for greater public exposure. They could be new efforts for which you have found an eager coordinator or dedicated consultant. They could be data collection stations, local contributions to yearly population counts, or any combination of the above.

The scientific validity of each program should be absolutely clear. A wildlife sightings board where all members of the public are encouraged to contribute, the establishment of a reference collection of local insects and a rigorous study of small rodent populations are all extremely useful as educational experiences, but of differing use to scientists in those fields.

STEP 5: Find staff for your program and funding to enhance the effort.
Recruit, train and organize volunteers. Your programs may need a small group of highly trained volunteers for an invasive weed study, or a large group with less training to conduct surveys of park users to determine quality of experience. You may need staff at regular intervals over a long period of time to take water quality readings, or for a single event such as an annual bird count. You may need a rigid scheduling system for a twenty-four hour observational study of frogs, or a loose system for the collection of plant specimens to begin a reference collection.

Again, rich sources of volunteers and hosted workers (personnel paid by another agency who assist in your effort) are natural history clubs, high schools, colleges, universities, resource agencies, environmental groups, youth clubs, scouts, and organizations of retired citizens. Universities often provide credit to their students, if you make proper arrangements; obtaining credit for effort is a wonderful incentive.

Grants for specific pieces of equipment are often more successful than grants for staff funds or for general administration. Good quality equipment could help you attract knowledgeable and dedicated independent experts.

STEP 6: Plan for the organization and accessability of data.
Don't allow your programs to become swamped in piles of disorganized and useless data. Well organized data leads to clear results which, in turn, leads to greater enthusiasm among the volunteers, the general public, and potential funding sources. Dissemination of data and results should also be emphasized. User friendly computer data bases, scientific experiments tailored for schools using your programs' methods or data, and publicly accessible specimen collections all vastly increase the educational value of your programs beyond the volunteers immediately involved.

STEP 6: Build public education programs.
These programs should be specific to your various efforts. Rather than a general lecture on the importance of watershed quality, consider a hands-on demonstration on water-quality testing. Any science kits developed should feature the actual equipment and techniques being used in your programs. Classroom lessons or experiments should use the data and methods specific to these programs. The relevance of these procedures and the theories behind them then becomes readily apparent. People also become enthusiastic about specific projects that can be replicated in areas of their own choosing.

STEP 7: Publicize.
Advertize your events, volunteer opportunities and discoveries. There are many low cost ways to get the word out: public service announcements on the radio or television, listing your events on community calendars, printing flyers and brochures, writing natural history "blurbs" for a local newspaper, or encouraging feature articles in the newspaper or local magazines.

STEP 8: Plan for continuity.
Start simple. Make sure that whatever is begun can be continued. Formalize procedures as much as possible so they can survive any personnel changes intact and organized. Keep enthusiasm levels high; yours, your staff and the public in general. Continue to discover the wonders in your own backyard.