Friends of Gold Butte
FoGB is hosting a bioblitz at Gold Butte National Monument on 5 and 6 April. The system we will use to collect the data is a phone app called iNatualist. Come learn the basics of this app so you can actively participate in the biolblitz by creating observations of the plants and animals you encounter.
There are still many sections within the monument where no data exists of what plants and animals live there. The data you collect will confirm what organisms are actually there and contribute to the understanding of our local ecosystem and the changes it is undergoing.
What is iNaturalist? iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. It’s also a crowdsourced species identification system and an organism occurrence recording tool. You can use it to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect this kind of information for a common purpose, or access the observational data collected by other iNaturalist users.
What is a bioblitz? A bioblitz is a short-term event focused primarily on collecting information and identifying as many species within a set area and time. Some bioblitzes are very species specific and have narrowly defined goals. Our bioblitz is more general in scope. We will observe and document all species to create a baseline of data.
This app/program is a helpful tool to:
– learn names and characteristics of local plants and animals
– add to the body of existing scientific data for current/future studies
– network/communicate with both professional and citizen scientists
In this class, you will learn:
1. how to create an observation.
2. tips for improving identifications
3. uploading observations into the cloud
We will start with a quick overview of the functions then get some hands on practice of the basics. Attendees must create their free account and arrive with a smart phone with the free app already installed. You can use the follow links for google play and apple app store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.inaturalist.android&hl=en_US
