Diario del proyecto BC Parks

martes, 09 de mayo de 2023

Here's to a wonderful summer of iNatting in BC Parks! Lots of successes to report already

Hello BC Parks biodiversity observers! It’s finally getting close to summer and we’re looking forward to wandering the trails of our beautiful BC Parks. The BC Parks Biodiversity Program (https://www.bcinat.com/) has a great lineup of students set to explore parks and record biodiversity observations this summer, collecting data on our most beautiful habitats. You can follow along with their progress here: https://inaturalist.ca/projects/bc-parks-inat-team-big-summer-2023.

As everyone collects more and more observations with iNaturalist, we have lots of successes to report. Here are just a few:

  • this grasshopper is thousands of kms out of its known range https://inaturalist.ca/observations/139577761
  • this may be a species that hasn’t been seen in Canada for decades, and was presumed extirpated. It needs more work to confirm, but this is a great example of how observations can help to understand our rarest species https://inaturalist.ca/observations/119654516
  • this robber fly observation extends this rare species’ known range, just in time for an assessment of its status by COSEWIC - the Committee on the Status of Endangered Species in Canada https://inaturalist.ca/observations/84819444
  • this Sharp-tailed Snake was the northern-most observation on Vancouver Island, and it was an important component of COSEWIC’s status assessment in 2021 https://inaturalist.ca/observations/78315967
  • this observation of an Olympic Peninsula Millipede from Carmanah triggered an avalanche of attention to the species. While it had been considered a potentially endangered species, we now know thanks to iNaturalist that it is not as rare as people had thought https://inaturalist.ca/observations/26458189
  • there have been many bioblitzes that report thousands of observations across huge areas. Here’s an example: https://inaturalist.ca/projects/hakai-luxvbalis-june-2022
  • there are also thousands of observations that show new locations for various species around the province, along with beautiful photos of species that we know and love. What a great way to learn more about our beautiful biodiversity!

How can you help? Make lots of observations when you’re out in nature! Tell your friends about iNaturalist and how they can contribute to better understanding BC’s biodiversity by uploading their observations. Every observation counts and is important. Can we get the BC Parks Biodiversity Program over 1 million observations this summer? Can it get to 15,000 species? Can we find even more locations for rare species, or invasive species, or new species for the province? If 1000 people commit to making 500 observations in their favourite parks we’d get well beyond 1 million observations and learn so much more about BC nature. https://inaturalist.ca/projects/bc-parks

Have a great summer, and Happy iNatting!

Brian Starzomski (@bstarzomski) and John Reynolds (@johndreynolds)

Publicado el martes, 09 de mayo de 2023 a las 03:41 PM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 05 de mayo de 2021

Making your observations matter

Dear all-

It’s coming up to that time of year where we’re all excited to be outside as much as possible. We’re aiming for a big year on the BC Parks iNaturalist project: can we get to 500,000 observations of 10,000 species?

BC Parks iNaturalist data are fast becoming one of the largest and most valuable sources of biodiversity information in BC, and it’s all due to your great work in uploading your observations of nature :) . Get out there, stay safe and healthy, and have fun!

There have been some questions about the relative benefits of iNaturalist.ca (preferred) and iNaturalist.org. We hope to answer these below:

o We recommend that all Canadian iNaturalist users set their account settings to use iNaturalist.ca. Simply go to your account settings in the app or on the website and choose iNaturalist.ca for your affiliation. Your observations will still be fully connected and visible to the global iNaturalist community, and your username and password won’t change. The iNaturalist.ca site is supported by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, which has signed an agreement with iNaturalist to promote local use and benefit local biodiversity. The CWF has access to true coordinates of observations from Canada, which are automatically obscured from public view to protect species considered susceptible to harm (including direct/indirect harassment or collection). The operators of the iNaturalist.ca site will have access to your email address (only to communicate with you about site activities).

Should I obscure my observation if it’s a species that may be subject to harm?

o The iNaturalist.ca partners have spent a lot of time working to create a list of species susceptible to harm. These species locations are obscured automatically and you don't need to do anything further when you upload an observation. Provincial and Territorial Conservation Data Centres would like to have access to all observation data for their species assessments. If you manually obscure an observation, they do not have access to the true coordinates. They therefore recommend against obscuring locations manually if possible. If the observation is at your house and you want that location to be private, you can enlarge the bubble around the location dot, so it won’t be obvious where you live. There are very few examples of species being harmed after locations have been posted on iNaturalist, thanks partly to the automatic obscuring mechanism for species that could be subject to harm or collection.

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful year outdoors!

Brian Starzomski (@bstarzomski) and John Reynolds (@johndreynolds )

Publicado el miércoles, 05 de mayo de 2021 a las 07:01 PM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

viernes, 07 de agosto de 2020

Let's finish off the summer with a big iNat push in BC Parks!

Hi folks-

It's hard to believe it's already August! We have one month left in the summer to iNat BC Parks! August is a wonderful month to be out exploring provincial protected areas, from swimming in lakes, kayaking the coasts, to climbing into the alpine to see the glorious wildflower blooms. Insects are out by the thousands, and every observation you make increases our knowledge of biodiversity across the province. Who knows what you'll find? Just last month @johndreynolds, @jennyheron, @jgatten and I found new occurrences of a very rare dragonfly in the Lower Mainland. Your iNatting may turn up something just as important, whether a rare species, an out-of-range occurrence, or key information on the timing of activity. All iNat observations are important, and together we're contributing to the next phase of our understanding of Canadian biodiversity.

We're going to do our best to get as many observations as we can before September hits, pushing us past our goals of 225,000 observations and more than 50 protected areas with 1000 observations each. We're aiming for new species, too: just this week the project pushed past 6000 species total! Way to go BC Parks iNatters!

Here's hoping you get out to our beautiful BC Parks and see lots of interesting species. Have fun, be safe!

@bstarzomski and @johndreynolds

Publicado el viernes, 07 de agosto de 2020 a las 05:18 PM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2020

BC Parks iNat project is back May 14th!

...aaannnnddddd we're back! BC Parks will be opening up again as of May 14th (see here for more details: http://bcparks.ca/covid-19/ ): we're all excited to get back out there, and what a great time of year to be heading back into provincial parks and protected areas!

What do you want to see in BC Parks this summer? New birds? Beautiful new plants and insects? Unusual mosses, lichens, and fungi? Who knows what you'll see, and record, using iNaturalist to survey biodiversity across the province. We're learning so much about what species are found where, and there are so many wonderful photos.

It's going to be a big summer for observing nature in BC Parks. Can we get past 225,000 observations? What about to 8,000 species? Can we get 50 protected areas up to more than 1,000 observations each?

Have fun out there, and be safe and healthy.

Brian Starzomski @bstarzomski
John Reynolds @johndreynolds

Publicado el miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2020 a las 10:02 PM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

jueves, 09 de abril de 2020

BC Parks are closed: iNatting in the time of COVID

Dear all-

With this morning’s announcement that all BC Parks will be shut for the foreseeable future our BC Parks iNaturalist project is going to see a big decline in additions. What a great opportunity to add your old photos! If you have pictures from the past that have dates and locations, now is the time to add them to iNaturalist. It’s easy to do, and historical data are so valuable: we can keep the project momentum going, learn more about what was there in the past, AND reminisce about past awesome trips to BC’s most beautiful places. We can also make plans and dream about our next big trips into BC Parks, which hopefully we can do soon.

Another way to pass the time is to help with identifications: here’s a link to all the unidentified observations in the BC Parks project https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=7085&project_id=bc-parks&quality_grade=needs_id&subview=grid. Let’s see how many IDs we can get!

We hope you’re all managing to stay happy and healthy, and look forward to seeing you on the trails later in the year!

Take care-

Brian and John

Publicado el jueves, 09 de abril de 2020 a las 01:57 AM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 18 de diciembre de 2019

iNatting in BC Parks: 2019 Roundup

With just a couple weeks left in 2019 (and in this decade!) we're looking back at an amazing first year of the BC Parks iNaturalist Project, and looking ahead to even more great iNatting in BC Parks next year. We surpassed all our goals for this project this year: there are now over 113,000 observations and nearly 5000 species, thanks to the more than 2,300 observers and 2,600 identifiers who have contributed their observations and ID expertise!

It’s been so much fun to watch all the exciting and fascinating observations roll in from across the province: we’ve seen cool species interactions, rare and at-risk species, species outside their normal range, and of course countless beautiful photos. To celebrate the collective efforts from everyone involved this past year we’ve picked out a handful of awesome observations to share with you below. With so many amazing observations it was tricky to pick a reasonable number to highlight, so please share your favourite observations with us in the comments below!

This is just the beginning of course; we’re in the midst of planning for even bigger numbers next year, plus there’s still time left to help tip us over 115,000 observations before we ring in the new year. With winter setting in there’s a whole host of new observation opportunities to take advantage of, such as winter birds and snow tracks left by the more elusive mammals, so grab your phone or camera, bundle up, and head out to your favourite park!

Check out the collection of resources put together by the BC Parks Foundation if you’re looking for observation tips and tricks or inspiration (hint: helpful for getting new iNatters hooked), including a guide to getting started with the BC Parks project and fun observation bingo cards, downloadable here: https://tinyurl.com/bcpf-inat-kit

--

A not-so-small selection of unique, beautiful, strange, or otherwise outstanding observations:

1) A majestic moose captured mid-drink by @kblaney in Muncho Lake Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/27348479

2) @jasonheadley’s shot of an Arctic butterfingers lichen in Stone Mountain Provincial Park made the iNat Observation of the Day:
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/31859958

3) We loved @erinleeski’s beautiful shot of white pasqueflowers so much that we made it the banner photo for the Valhalla Provincial Park page (Got great park banner photo candidates? Send them our way!):
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/36352186

4) @kg- found a new patch of oysterplant (or sea bluebells), a provincial species of special concern, thanks to collaboration with @eacameron and the BC Conservation Data Centre:
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/29036704

5) A very out of range species of gooseneck barnacle, Lepas testudinata, in Rose Spit Ecological Reserve photographed by @kg-:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/29032371

6) @alisonnorthup spotted this goldenrod crab spider in the process of dealing with its freshly-caught bumblebee prey, in Mt Robson Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/29355626

7) A wary wolf spotted by @bstarzomski on Duck Island in the Hakai Lúxvbálís Conservancy:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/27872555

8) @joanseptembre found a pile of healthy-looking ochre sea stars in Dionisio Point Provincial Park, a promising sign in the wake of sea star wasting disease:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/24714311

9) A particularly adorable American pika, captured mid-call by @jasonheadley in Nancy Greene Provincial Park:
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/31458450

10) @camerondeckert uploaded BC’s first iNat record of the plains forktail (a provincially red-listed species), found in Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park:
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/29040661

11) A beautiful shot of sockeye salmon spawning in Kokanee Creek Provincial Park by @kokanee:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/35764096

12) Collaboration between our BC Parks Big Summer field team and @leah at the BC Conservation Data Centre led to a number of vivid dancer damselfly observations (blue-listed provincially and special concern federally) in Ram Creek Ecological Reserve, such as this one by @ldietzchiasson:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/32061256

13) @hydaticus caught this Pacific banana slug munching on a plant in Strathcona Provincial Park, prompting the question of how it managed to reach so high in the first place:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/26831397

14) @marmota_taylor found this teeny tiny western toad in Wells Grey Provincial Park:
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/29301279

15) @liamsingh captured this crisp portrait of a pigeon guillemot with its freshly-caught prey in Oak Bay Islands Ecological Reserve:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/30275015

16) A picturesque snow-dusted American bison duo snapped by @brookemichell in Muncho Lake Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/33748721

17 - 19) A three-in-one observation of whale lice and whale barnacles on a grey whale that washed up on North Beach in Naikoon Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/29037015 (barnacles by @kg-)
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/28969655 (lice by @katiekushneryk)
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/28260061 (grey whale by @jennyheron)

20) @johnreynolds uploaded the first iNat observations of Tubaphe levii, found in abundance in Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/26458189

21) @kokanee caught a northern saw-whet owl grasping a shrew in Kokanee Creek Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/20738693

22) A very photogenic Pacific sideband snail, captured by @thomasbarbin in Goldstream Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/28160224

23) A rufous hummingbird sourcing nest materials in Smuggler Cove Marine Provincial Park, photographed by @hmbbirder:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/22546297

24) @chowarth spotted this northern rubber boa at night in Kalamalka Lake Protected Area:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/30046049

25) @hydaticus captured mating bee-mimic robber flies from two different species in Silver Star Provincial Park:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/30052015

Publicado el miércoles, 18 de diciembre de 2019 a las 12:53 AM por bcparks bcparks | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

viernes, 06 de septiembre de 2019

100,000 Observations!

Today we hit a major milestone: we hit the 100,000 observation mark! Those observations gave us 4,715 species that were contributed by 2,053 people. In our February 2019 post we wondered whether 75,000 observations and 3,500 species might be possible by the end of the summer. We never dreamed we'd blow past both of those milestones, with an extra 25,000 observations and 1,215 species! The fact that we now have 2.5 times as many observers as back in February is perhaps the best news of all, as it shows that people are catching on to how fun and useful it is to use iNat in BC Parks.

We also want to thank our partners, including our universities (University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University), as well as, of course BC Parks and the BC Parks Foundation. We also appreciate the support of the Pacific Wildlife Foundation who supported some of our marine surveys.

All of these thanks do NOT mean the project is over! Far from it, we're just getting warmed up. The project will continue "forever", and we're already making plans for expansion over the coming years. Brian says let's hit 250,000 next year, John says "is that all"? So keep iNatting our beautiful BC parks and stay tuned for more news.

@johndreynolds
@bstarzomski

Publicado el viernes, 06 de septiembre de 2019 a las 12:42 AM por johndreynolds johndreynolds | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

martes, 13 de agosto de 2019

Mid-August in the BC Parks Big Summer!

What an amazing summer, and it's not over yet! The BC Parks Big Summer continues to be a huge success, with the BC Parks iNaturalist project having collected almost 80,000 observations of over 4400 species, seen by more than 1850 observers! There are so many interesting observations, including of new species for BC, rare species, and some absolutely wonderful photos of iconic BC species in some of the most important places in the province. BC Parks and their partners are responsible for the management of over 1000 parks and protected areas, and it looks like more than 470 of those protected areas have at least 1 observation in our BC Parks project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bc-parks.

There are a little more than 2 weeks left before the end of August: can we push the number of observations over 100,000? To more than 5000 species? (Hint: take photos of insects!). Encourage your friends to use iNat too: the more eyes the better as we see more and more of BC's biodiversity. Let's get out there and enjoy BC Parks and record our species observations for everyone to see. This is only the first of many years of observing nature across the province: it's exciting to imagine how much everyone will see in the years to come.

Happy Summer and iNatting everybody!

Publicado el martes, 13 de agosto de 2019 a las 08:11 PM por bcparks bcparks | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 20 de marzo de 2019

Springing into the BC Parks Big Summer!

As the weather warms and it Springs up more and more (we've found 3 Anna's Hummingbird nests in the past week, saw our first swallows today, and White-crowned Sparrows are singing all over), we're getting very excited for the BC Parks Big Summer! Using iNaturalist to record biodiversity in some of BC's most beautiful places is a dream: getting out in nature, being a naturalist, taking photos, and collecting data that helps us to better understand the natural world are our passions. What more can we learn about our protected areas? What new species can we find? Can we get dozens of parks with at least a thousand observations each? Will we push past 2000 observers? Who will find the most species this year? Who will see the rarest species? Who will observe something way out of its range, or in a totally new, unknown location? Who will take the best photo? Find out the answers to all of these, and more, during the BC Parks Big Summer!

Brian Starzomski @bstarzomski
John Reynolds @johndreynolds
Andrew Simon @chlorophilia

Publicado el miércoles, 20 de marzo de 2019 a las 04:24 PM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

domingo, 03 de marzo de 2019

815 protected areas and more!

We're continuing to enter in the boundaries of protected areas around British Columbia, and we're now over 800, with about 200 more to go! We've moved through creating these projects several weeks faster than we thought we would, and are excited for the Spring to hit so we can all spend lots more time making iNat observations!

We're now at 15,535 observations of 2639 species. More than 900 people have made these observations.

What can we do this summer? Push the BC Parks observations over 75,000? Over 3500 species? At least 30 parks with 1000 observations each? More than 2000 observers?

It's shaping up to be a great year of iNaturalisting around the province, and we can't wait to see the amazing things we'll see! Let's all get out there and record as many observations as we can- and remember to have fun, be safe!

Brian Starzomski @bstarzomski
John Reynolds @johndreynolds
Andrew Simon @chlorophilia

Publicado el domingo, 03 de marzo de 2019 a las 04:24 AM por bstarzomski bstarzomski | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario