Citizen scientists encouraged to contribute critical data on biodiversity

The idea for the Big Backyard Bioblitz was born out of the pandemic — exploring your own backyard for science.

Organizers say it’s a hit.

"We started this program to have people use their phones or their cameras and upload pictures of spiders, bugs, butterflies, birds, trees, shrubs — anything they can see,” said Andrew Holland, with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The photos can help tell the range and distribution of plants and animal species across the country, said Holland.

According to him, being able to track crowd-sourced data is a major resource for conservation groups and governments. Because they don’t have the money to do it.

“To have average people from all walks of life across the country be a biologist for the weekend or a forester, it's a huge input of information that we wouldn't have the budget or the staff to gather," he said.

You can sign up through the nature conservancy’s website.

"You don't have to be an expert,” Holland said. “If you go out and see a certain shrub or tree but you don't know the name of it. You can take a picture of it, and sort of like google maps, it'll give a pin placement for where it's at,” he said.

By uploading, you're sharing that image with biologists, foresters, botanists, scientists and municipalities to confirm what you saw, so they can tell the biodiversity in the region.

Many people, like environmental science student Margaret Atkinson, were eager to give it a shot.

"I've done a lot of this stuff anyway. So I am very interested in conservation and climate change,” said Atkinson.

Josie Crichton says she uses it to learn about species she’s unfamiliar with.

"We've seen like some salamanders and like some mushrooms. We use it because I don't really know my mushrooms very well,” said Crichton.

But there's one creature in particular that the nature conservancy would like to see recorded. Because it was recently added to the endangered species list.

"We want to encourage people to keep an eye out for monarch butterflies to help track their visibility,” Holland said.

The organization wants to remind people to be safe in their adventures and not get too close to potentially dangerous wildlife.