BOISE — This weekend, people around the world are documenting the biodiversity where they live.
The City Nature Challenge invites people to use the iNaturalist app to take photos to document plants and animals where they live. Ada County and Canyon County are participating this year.
The challenge began Friday and people can take photos through Monday, April 29, going out as part of a group, or just on their own. Observations can be uploaded to the iNaturalist app or website. Between April 30-May 5, people are invited to identify the species in people’s observations.
People who use the app are sharing observations with a large database that scientists can use for biodiversity research, according to the app’s website.
The city of Boise is having a Bioblitz Saturday at Marianne Williams Park (3451 E. Barber Valley Dr., Boise) from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., featuring a guided birding exploration from 8-9:30 a.m., a tour of the park’s plants from 10-11:30 a.m., with the afternoon focused on insects and invertebrates.
On Friday, city of Boise Community Volunteer Specialist Kristin Gnojewski led a group of people at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve to observe and photograph nature in the park. The challenge started in 2018 as a competition between the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas to see which participants could log the most species over a four-day period, Gnojewski said.
This year, 691 communities spread over 51 countries and all seven continents are participating, she said.
“So you are part of this global effort to get a snapshot of life on Earth,” Gnojewski said.
People taking photos do not need to know what species something is, she said. However, it is helpful if the observation is logged as “plant” or “insect,” for example, rather than “unknown.”
The group logged a variety of species while strolling through the park and its marsh boardwalks Friday morning, including a bee, willows, and a red slider turtle (an introduced species).
Jean Asbury joined the walk, having heard about it through a Master Naturalist course, which teaches participants skills such as plant and bird identification and geology. Participating in the City Nature Challenge is a way to contribute to scientific research, even as a relative novice, she said.
“How exciting is it that as someone who doesn’t have a degree in biology or in anything to do with this, I can contribute?” Asbury said. “And I’m learning so much.”
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