Bowen Island Conservancy wants you to get nosey about your neighbours.
Over the course of the summer, Bowen Island Conservancy is inviting islanders and guests to take photos of all things wild in their neighbourhood or around their island-based accommodation, and upload the images to an online citizen science platform or mobile phone app called iNaturalist. Get up close and personal with everything from the buzzing bugs and soft mosses to the lizards on the rocks. (But not too close!)
Everything from lichen to whales is counted in the Bowen Island Species Census. The uploaded images and recordings will be broken out by neighbourhoods, species and just for fun, by the most engaged neighbourhood, the most species found by individuals and neighbourhoods, and the most uploads by individuals. Conservation areas and parks are not part of the study. This census encourages each of us to “look where you live,” there is a good chance that someone will discover a species unrecorded on Bowen.
Bowen Island Conservancy wants to record all Bowen species – animal, plant, fungus and whatever this is. Photo Louise Loik
There is a global biodiversity crisis and islands are particularly vulnerable to island-wide and localized extinctions. With habitat being destroyed, fragmented, and degraded while also being hit by impacts of climate change, the creatures that rely on those habitats have nowhere to go. In an effort to understand what species of plants, animals and the in-between life forms that all play vital roles in the web of biodiversity on Bowen, a team of Bowen Island Conservancy volunteers is launching the Bowen Island Species Census. Have fun getting nosy about your neighbours –you may make an interesting discovery!
iNaturalist is a mobile phone app and website used around the world to crowd source observations of plants, animals and other organisms. Users upload photos of observations and iNaturalist’s image recognition software suggests the identity of the organism. You will need to open an account on the site and from there you can not only contribute to a database, you can learn and explore projects and species on the Gulf Islands, in BC Parks, and places all around the world.
A community of citizen scientists will confirm the identity of documented species, helping correct any errors and verify observations to make them research grade. Photos, videos and audio recordings can be uploaded.
Pull out your phone, take the photo and upload it to the iNaturalist app. By Louise Loik
Which neighbourhood has the most unusual, the most abundant, the most birds, amphibians, flowers or tree species? Find out this summer and head to the iNaturalist Bowen blog to follow the weekly species challenge.
Find more about Bowen's biodiversity at iNaturalist. Learn more about the project or learn more about Bowen Island Conservancy. If any Bowen businesses would like to provide sponsorship with prizes, please contact [email protected].
