MPs track nature on the Hill with ‘selfie’

What does Canada’s biodiversity look like in 2017? BioBlitz Canada 150 hopes to find out by taking a “nature selfie” Tuesday on Parliament Hill.

Members of Parliament will be teamed up with expert naturalists to photograph specimens in a friendly race along the Hill and the riverside.

Data about the specimen — anything from plant to animal life — will then be catalogued by the expert on hand and put into iNaturalist, a database that is the first of its kind in Canada, said Elizabeth Gammell, BioBlitz Canada 150 manager.

Leading the teams will be Sen. Rosa Galvez and MPs Richard Canning (NDP), Will Amos (Liberal), Elizabeth May (Green) and Robert Sopuck (Conservative), who all have backgrounds in science and the environment.

The virtual database was launched in 2015. Through it, Canadians can document things they come across in nature. The Canadian Wildlife Federation and the Royal Ontario Museum currently run the site in a joint effort with iNaturalist.org and the California Academy of Sciences.

Once the information is put into the database, it will go through a verification process before it gets published on the site, Gammell said.

The data will then be shared in a public domain, where citizens, scientists, educational institutions and government organizations can use it to make decisions on wildlife conservation, track patterns and changes in the environment and the impacts of climate change.

There will be 35 official BioBlitz events across the country in 2017, with five flagship events taking place in Toronto, Vancouver, Regina, Halifax and Quebec City.

Gammell noted that the original path the BioBlitz launch was going to take place on had to be slightly altered because of flooding.

“BioBlitz Canada 150 calls all citizens to be citizen-scientists this year,” said Rick Bates, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

“Canadians, like our parliamentarians, range from very expert to just getting to know our wildlife better. But everyone can truly contribute real scientific knowledge in 2017 for the future of Canada’s natural heritage.”

The event begins at noon on Parliament Hill at the Laurier statue by East Block.