Back in September, we reported on the efforts of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council and Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation (LASAN) to create a new index of our local wildlife through a new Biodiversity Project relying on the efforts of an army of local citizen scientists. (City Council District 4, the Hancock Park Garden Club and the Buzz are also participating as outreach partners.)
This Saturday, the GWNC will take the next step in that project – showing residents of all ages who would like to participate in the project how to easily catalog their local plants, flowers, birds, bugs and other animals with the iNaturalist phone app. Crowdsourcing data with tools like iNaturalist provides much more information than scientists can gather on their own, and also makes that data about our Los Angeles area instantly available to scientists both here and around the world, helping with their efforts to understand local ecosystems and habitats, study both native and non-native species and how they survive, and help preserve local ecosystems and prevent further loss of our native plants and animals.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 16, staff from the Natural History Museum will be at Memorial Branch Library, 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., to provide information about biodiversity, help with downloads of and registration on the iNaturalist app, and get people started observing and recording the flora and fauna all around us. So if you and your family members are interested in becoming citizen scientists, please plan to come and learn more. The event is free…but space is limited, so please RSVP to [email protected] if you’d like to attend.
