Hi Reston iNaturalist Users!

Thank you for all your participation in helping us locate and mark the locations of the cool native species found throughout Reston. We hope you will join us for the Reston BioBlitz 2018 set for June 2. At the Reston BioBlitz, scientists, naturalists and volunteers will work together during a 24-hour period to identify as many plants, animals and other organisms that live in Reston. The event will be rain or shine, so please dress appropriately for the weather.

Adults and students in high school/college are encouraged to participate in this citizen science challenge. An orientation and training will be provided prior to the event. Teams of approximately 4-6 people will be assigned to different taxonomic groups. Teams will be given maps and specific natural areas to inventory. Teams will need:

a subject matter expert to take the lead on species identification
an experienced iNaturalist app user
a shutterbug to capture digital photographs
locals, spotters and recorders who have familiarity with Reston's natural areas and trails

If you are unable to join a team, you can still participate on your own by joining the Reston BioBlitz 2018 project in iNaturalist and uploading species that you observe on June 2 anywhere in Reston.

Thank you!

Be sure to upload your observations when you get home if there is no good cell connection or your iPad needs to be connected to internet for download. You need internet to upload observations to the web so they can be shared and counted. Uploading from the app is straightforward. See the quick tutorial here: http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started#observations

Make sure to add it to the Project titled Reston Biodiversity and on June 2, 2018 to the BioBlitz. If you take photos from a camera, these need to be first uploaded to a computer and then added to iNaturalist as observations.

It's super exciting to be starting this bioblitz for Reston's natives plants and animals. We're looking forward to having a large amount of people involved in mapping the natives they see in the woods.