Documenting biodiversity is crucial for conservation efforts. Many conservation management decisions are based on information about species’ ranges, the number of populations, and number of individuals in those populations. Submitting specimens to herbaria and documenting species distributions through platforms like iNaturalist helps contribute invaluable data for conservation biologists, land managers, and policy-makers.

With the rising popularity of digital community science platforms, there are now an increasing number of fun ways for people to contribute to conservation efforts. One example is a Bioblitz, a coordinated effort to record as many species as possible within a designated location and time period. Bioblitzes are a great way to get people in touch with their natural environment, learn about the local flora and fauna, and contribute biodiversity data for researchers and conservationists. iNaturalist makes it easy to set up your own Bioblitz.

Besides Bioblitzes, iNaturalist projects can also be used to document biodiversity at larger scales. For example, the Canadian Conservation Corps and Canadian Wildlife Federation both have iNaturalist projects. Another cool example is the Butterflies In My Backyard (BIMBY) project, a community science component of the Butterflyway Project (a collaboration between the David Suzuki Foundation, Butterflyway Rangers, and UBC Science Faculty), focused on documenting interactions between butterflies and native plants in the Vancouver area!