Usery Mountain Recreation Area's Journal

Learn more about our project during a brown bag lunch presentation at Usery's Nature Center on Wednesday, March 6th at noon.

While exploring nature, we've all wondered "What is that?" and told someone "You gotta see this!" By taking photos of plants and animals while exploring the Usery Mountain Recreation Area, you can share your interesting sightings with others and learn more about what you saw. Your observations also become part of our iNaturalist citizen science project to help us better understand and protect the park's incredible wildlife.

During Wednesday's program, participants will learn how to submit observations into iNaturalist and discover how our project is being used by the park. Please bring your own smartphone or digital camera, if you have one, as well as closed-toe shoes for the optional outdoor portion of the program.

I am happy to report that our project is going strong and has recently reached a few significant milestones.

First, this project has now accounted for 200+ species seen within Usery Mountain Recreation Area! This includes over 100 different plants, 39 birds, 24 insects, 13 reptiles, and 8 mammals.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-fauna-of-usery-mountain-recreation-area?tab=stats

We've also had over 50 different people contribute observations to the project. It is great to have so many visitors sharing what they saw during their desert excursions, past and present. If you are one of our observers, THANK YOU! Your observations help in documenting and showcasing the variety of wildlife in the Usery area.