EVERYBODY WELCOME
An increasing number of organizations are dedicated to advancing citizen science. Here are some websites to help you get started
INATURALIST (CANADA)
inaturalist.ca Led by CWF as part of an international joint initiative, inaturalist.ca is a website for Canadians to share what they have encountered in nature, interact with fellow nature watchers and learn about our wildlife. As a citizen scientist, you will contribute useful knowledge to a database of Canadian species, enabling experts around the world to better understand current trends.
CITIZEN SCIENCE PORTAL, CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
science.gc.ca This handy portal offers access to a wide range of citizen science projects, covering everything from bats to the flu virus to whales. This is an excellent resource for Canadians looking to participate in meaningful projects right in their own backyards.
EARTH CHALLENGE 2020 earthday.org
April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, one of the first mass environmental awakenings. April 2020 is also the kickoff for this organization’s Earth Challenge 2020, the largest project of its type yet planned. Its goals: exchange open and interoperable citizen science data on a global scale, and equip people around the world to act on the information they help gather.
CITY NATURE CHALLENGE citynaturechallenge.org
Now in its fifth year, this annual global bioblitz enlists amateurs in a fun competition to find and document plants, animals and other organisms living in urban areas. Last year, the campaign gathered nearly a million entries on inaturalist.ca. The hope is to go well beyond that this year. Several Canadian cities and towns are participating.
WILDLIFE INSIGHTS wildlifeinsights.org
Camera traps offer fascinating and useful glimpses of animals’ “private lives” and are being used all around the world to better understand how wildlife populations are changing. Not only is it really cool to see the images, but Wildlife Insights provides invaluable, timely data from projects around the world.
FIND YOUR NICHE
Countless websites are geared to monitoring particular species, from bees, butterflies and milkweed to just about any bird and virtually every mammal you can think of. To find the one for you, visit the federal government’s Citizen Science Portal at science.gc.ca or search online. For help starting your own project, consider visiting the U.s.-based scistarter.org website. And for an overview and lots of good ideas, visit cwf-fcf.org and search “citizen.”