A plea for lots of weed observations (more is more!)
A message from @kate_mcalpine ......
Kia ora fellow iNaturalist enthusiasts and citizen scientists. Kate McAlpine here, weed ecologist at DOC. I’m currently working with Nigel Charman to develop a smart weed alert tool (SWAT) to improve our ability to detect new weed infestations early. SWAT will be open source and freely available, and you’ll be able to tailor weed alerts to your specific criteria. iNaturalist will be one of the major sources of data that feeds into SWAT.
So – as you’re going about your excellent business making iNaturalist observations in the City Nature Challenge for 2024 this coming weekend (26-29 April), please include weeds on your hit list – even the common things. The more data points we have for weeds (actually - any exotic plants in the wild), the more effective SWAT will be. The city that records the most exotic plant records will win the highly prestigious ‘Weedy Wonderland’ title for 2024. Happy hunting! 😊
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Hi all. Hoping to get my kids more engaged with nature around them so signed up to iNaturalist.
I'd like them to be part of the City Nature Challenge 2024. We're in Kilbirnie, Wellington so how do I join or post our observations to the Greater Wellington Region 'group' please. And sorry, we're not on Instagram!
Hi @kilbirniek, its great you're getting your kids involved!
Any observation taken within the boundary we've drawn will automatically get added to the challenge so no need to do anything at your end other than take lots of observations. There are also a number of free events being run for the Challenge this year (rockpooling, fungi, evening bug hunt etc). These are aimed at getting people to look more closely at plants and animals they may normally overlook and are intended for kids (and adults) so might be of interest. We'll post details of these shortly.
Cheers,
Lara
tagging the top observers of introduced plants during Wellington's 2023 CNC into this post for @kate_mcalpine
@tony_wills @ecoelijah @chrisclose @nifta @kiwihunter @pwarren @heidimeudt @naturewatchwidow @kate_mcalpine @sophia_lopez @amanhunt @leonperrie @svendhansen @lisa_bennett @kiwialli @ecojimmy @carolwest @ktbday @jwhite @nzembo @peta_mcmillan @james595 @dianne_and_gordon_purdie
Thank you @naturewatchwidow and @leonperrie for your comments. Sorry all a bit new to this. We're close to the Southern Walkway so a fair bit of greenery around us. So we just take photos of foliage and fauna? We have the everyday Tui, piwakawaka and Kaka. Occasionally kereru. Do we 'observe' them?
Hi @kilbirniek - yes that is correct. Just load pictures of each plant or animal as individual observations in inaturalist. Here is a great guide to starting out:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started
Hi @kilbirniek - you could join the project. Click on 'Join' on the top right of the project home page (to the right of 'About'). This should ensure your observations added smoothly, allow you to see them easily and get messages.
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