Sign up to be a Boston partner!

Hello Boston CNC Participants,

The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is back! This year the CNC is international with 65 cities worldwide participating in this global effort to document urban biodiversity. We are spearheading the Boston Area campaign for 2018 and are again focusing within the I-495 corridor and out to Stellwagen Bank to discover and document our unique biodiversity.

We have an amazing team of partners, but need your help to reach more people and record more observations. If you or your organization is interested in helping out, please fill out this Google Form by March 9. More ways to get involved below.

Here are a few of the ways you can help highlight the amazing biodiversity in our region and position Boston to be a leader in the CNC:
Spread the word! Send out information on the CNC to your member or volunteer lists.
Incorporate CNC into your existing events. If you're already holding an event or events during April 27 - 30, we can help with resources for using iNaturalist at the event. Hikes, restoration events, festivals - all of those could provide great opportunities for making observations. Let us know the details of where, when, and who you are targeting and we’ll add it to the calendar of events.
Plan an event specifically for people to make iNaturalist observations. A short bioblitz? A nature documentation hike? If you and/or your staff are willing to hold an event it would be AWESOME! If aren't familiar with iNaturalist, we may be able to come give a short iNaturalist training (in-person or virtual) so you feel comfortable with the platform (and see how cool it is for this sort of biodiversity documentation!)
Have your site listed as a place to go to make observations. We can help drive people to your location by listing it as a place to go to observe. Consider offering a discount for admission during the CNC to get people out!
Help make IDs during the event and the identification period (4/27-5/3)! The more observations we get down to species level, the more species we add to our tally!
• Make use of the data collected by the CNC to help your efforts. Let us know what kinds of data you need for your conservation, management, research or general interest purposes and we can help identify the best way of accessing the data collected from iNaturalist.
• If you’re an educator (formal or informal) let us help you get youth involved with our Educator’s Toolkit! This includes NGSS-aligned pre-, during, and post-event materials.

However you participate we want to support your efforts. Our resources can help build your capacity. We have flyers, iNaturalist how-to handouts and trainings, science quests to delve deeper, and an Educator’s Toolkit to help you engage others. We have a website and will also have social media, an event calendar, and list of places to visit to help drive participants to your site.

The City Nature Challenge is a great introduction to citizen science and urban biodiversity. Again, if this sounds interesting to you or your organization, please let us know by completing this Google Form by March 9. We will get back in touch to coordinate in February. Please feel free to recommend additional contacts, or forward this to others who you think might want to participate.

On behalf of the Boston City Nature Challenge Steering Committee, happy observing!

CNC: Boston Area Steering Committee:
• Eric Baitchman, Zoo New England
• Aimee Bonanno, New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative
• Mark Chandler, Earthwatch Institute
• Priyanka deSouza, MIT
• Colleen Hitchcock, Brandeis University
• Erin Kelly, Mass Audubon
• Amy Lorenz, Encyclopedia of Life

• Cynthia Mead, Zoo New England
• Rob Stevenson, University of Massachusetts Boston
• Marie Studer, Encyclopedia of Life

Posted on January 19, 2018 09:35 PM by heatherhops2it heatherhops2it

Comments

No comments yet.

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments