Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota and a Director of the Monarch Butterfly Fund has recently published an article that shows: (1) citizen science has the potential to play a key role in conservation outreach, (2) volunteers obtain conservation information and support from citizen science projects, (3) volunteers become more involved in conservation after joining citizen science, and (4) conservation information and encouragement are linked to conservation action. You may read the abstract of the article here.