Say goodbye to paper field guides

DERBY >> The days of lugging around backpacks full of field guides while hiking or bird watching are over, according to Michelle Duong, a project coordinator for the free phone app Map of Life.

And the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is touting ways in which Connecticut residents can use this new technology to help aid in conservation and data collection efforts for the department.

“The more people are engaging and participating, the more information we are able to glean,”

said Susan Quincy, an environmental educator for the DEEP’s Kellogg Environmental Center in Derby.

Quincy said wildlife biologists and conservation scientists at the DEEP use public data all the time, especially bird watching logs provided by the Connecticut Audubon Society, but this app, Map of Life, will help more people to be able to be involved and see the results of their work.

“What’s helped recently is the ability of technology to make that data open to the public,” Quincy said. “Now, we can see the results of our research.”

Quincy said the hope is that the more the public participates in data gathering and learning to recognize the species in their own backyard, they more they will be interested in protecting those species.

“We need more eyes on the ground,” she said.

The Map of Life app, developed in partnership with Yale University and University of Florida, allows the user to pull up a list of plants and animals that are most likely to be seen in the region in which the user is walking or hiking. Each species comes with a full description and a number of pictures to aid the user in identifying what they are seeing.

“We’re not just a citizen science app. We’re also a field guide app,” Duong, who is based at Yale, said. “It’s a new era of using technology for whatever we can. Our app brings all of that (information) together.”

The app has species information for local flora and fauna all over the world, Duong said, and it can be readily used anywhere.

“You can use this locally in Connecticut, or when you travel to Mexico,” Duong said. She herself has used it all over the country.

Just recently, the company started creating downloadable lists of species for a region so that a user did not have to have cell service in order to use the guide, Duong said. She said they hope to have a Connecticut downloadable list soon.

Once a user is able to identify a species, they can “tag” it on the app and that information enters a data center that the DEEP and public will be able to access, Duong said. So a user can log on to a website and view the tags they made during their afternoon hike, she said.

The app is continuing to be improved all the time, Duong said. There are approximately 30,000 users, she said.

Quincy and Duong will lead an information session about how Connecticut residents can use the app to tag species and contribute to data collection for the DEEP. The information session will be held on April 27 at the Kellogg Environmental Center at 6:30 p.m.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Map of Life phone app is a field guide for avid hikers.