Lethbridge part of biodiversity tracking challenge
By Al Beeber on April 22, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com The city of Lethbridge has joined a worldwide initiative to track biodiversity.Lethbridge is one of 23 Canadian cities that have signed up for the 2021 City Nature Challenge led by the Canadian Wildlife Federation as part of a global event.
More than 440 cities from 44 countries are participating in the event which relies on observations in each city by participants using a free app called iNaturalist.
Using digital cameras and smartphones, participants can track their species observations which will become part of an international database.
Curtis Goodman, Resource Development Co-ordinator at Helen Schuler Nature Centre, said Tuesday that facility is supporting the CWF’s Dorothy Graham on the project locally.
While the nature centre has developed its own internal biodiversity database since the 1990s, the iNaturalist app — available for Apple, Android and desktop products — “is such an amazing tool to engage the community with,” said Goodman.
While iNaturalist will appeal to “heavy hitters who track a lot,” Goodman said it’s also a great tool for newcomers who want to observe the diversity in their areas.
“It lets people get their feet wet” by taking images and uploading them, said Goodman. That is the first part of the program. The second involves identifying those observations.
The event runs in two stages with observations being recorded from April 30 to May 3 and observations being identified from April 30 to May 9.
For people who can’t get out to make their own observations, the identification portion will allow them to be involved, said Goodman.
For the nature centre, the challenge is an exciting one, said Goodman, because it can engage a broader part of the community.
“We’re hoping to see some rare and interesting finds.”
The app’s value doesn’t end with the challenge; by using it year-round, people will “have a positive impact” on the collection of biodiversity data, Goodman said.
The CWF has a page set up on iNaturalist.ca that automatically adds observations in each participating city.
Those cities are competing with each other but national results are tabulated to represent Canada’s total in the worldwide competition.
In 2020, 41,000 people in 244 cities registered more than 815,000 observations of 32,000 species including 1,300 rare or endangered ones, says a CWF press release. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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