When you visit McCormick's Creek State Park, you'll see a huge area of fallen trees. This is damage leftover from a March 2023 tornado.There is a chance for you to get involved as a citizen scientist to help document the area as the forest regrows. This area, along Trail 5, is part of Wolf Cave Nature Preserve. Because it is a preserve, humans cannot change the area. Now, scientists have an opportunity to study how the forest regrows.To do this, they need the public's help on your next hike. In November 2024, the park installed a Chronolog station. Here, you'll place your phone, snap a photo of the landscape, then upload it using a QR code.The photos are added to a collection that comprises a timelapse, which shows how the landscape changes through the months and years.Park staff members have already seen some of these changes occurring. Fewer mammals have inhabited the area, and in their place, staff have seen more prairie warblers and woodpeckers. There have also been more snakes in the area with the fallen trees.More prairie and savanna-type plants have grown in the area which used to be forest. Analyzing your submitted photos will help scientists make new discoveries about the area."It's a really unique opportunity to track this for research to see what plants are going to grow up and die and become the next soil layer," explained Jessica Filer, the park's Interpretive Naturalist. "And what our forest will eventually mature and look like the next 100 years."Sarah Hamilton is the Assistant Property Manager and was at the park following the tornado. "A lot of emotion that you feel is shock," Hamilton recalls. "There was sadness."Hamilton explained that the tornado happened as part of the park's opening weekend for the season. The staff didn't let the tornado deter them. "From the very beginning, even from the day after, we were using the word 'opportunity,'" Hamilton said. "The park will rebuild. It won't be the exact same."But this change, documented by citizen scientists and their photos, is welcomed by the park staff.McCormick's Creek State Park is Indiana's first state park, and the first state park to deal with tornado damage to this extent. You can watch the timelapse of all submitted photos by visiting here.