Friends of Rogers participating in annual City Nature Challenge
The Friends of Rogers are inviting anyone in Chenango, Madison, and Otsego Counties to get outside from April 26 to 29 to record plants, animals, and insects they see in the iNaturalist app as part of the worldwide City Nature Challenge. (Photos by Dustin Genter of 5th Dimension Photography)
CHENANGO COUNTY — The Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center is participating in the annual City Nature Challenge for the second year in a row.
The challenge is an international effort to get people outdoors and exploring nature, while also contributing to community science by recording any plants, animals, and insects they see on the iNaturalist app. It's also a friendly competition to see who can record the most observations and the most species.
Friends of Rogers Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone said because Sherburne is so small, she expanded their area to include Chenango, Madison, and Otsego Counties. Any observations recorded in iNaturalist in these three counties between April 26 and 29 will automatically count toward the area's total for the challenge.
"If everybody comes to Rogers Center and does it at Rogers Center then you’re going to have everybody probably recording and uploading the same species. So that’s why I made it three counties," Rathbone explained. "I expanded it beyond Sherburne so we could get more variety and try to get some more baseline data of what’s out there this time of year in our general region."
Observations can be recorded in iNaturalist using photos or sound recordings. Rathbone encourages taking photos or recordings directly in the app, as it will automatically include location information, as long as the phone's GPS is turned on.
Otherwise, photos can be taken with a digital camera or on a cell phone and then uploaded to iNaturalist, with location information entered manually.
Video tutorials on using iNaturalist can be found on the Friends of Rogers website at FriendsofRogers.org/city-nature-challenge.
After the four-day event, April 30 to May 5 will be dedicated to identification of the animals and plants recorded in iNaturalist.
"Even if you are a new person to this, you can go in and help identify things that other teams have uploaded. So other people who have uploaded for us, people who have uploaded in Massachusetts, or wherever," said Rathbone. "There have been some years where I'm uploading my stuff and I see other people’s things and, oh, well I know what that is, I can confirm that they got that correct. So it just helps."
Not only does the City Nature Challenge encourage people to get outside and get active, but it also contributes to community science by providing data to scientists and researchers.
"Anything that gets loaded into iNaturalist, once it has been identified and confirmed by two other people, it becomes research grade. So there’s a lot of scientists and researchers out there who just do not have the budget or the staff to do a lot of the field work, so they go into iNaturalist and they pull data from that," Rathbone said.
Last year, Rathbone said the area had a total of 33 observers, 783 observations, and 326 species. She hopes to break those records this year with 50 observers, over 1,000 observations, and at least 350 species recorded.
Those interested in seeing what has been recorded in Chenango, Madison, and Otsego County for the City Nature Challenge can do so by opening the app and clicking the "Projects" tab, and searching for "City Nature Challenge 2024: Sherburne, NY."
Rathbone encourages area residents to get outside this weekend and try their hand at nature observation.
"It gets you out, it gets you moving, it gets you interacting with the nature that’s out there, so hopefully sparking your curiosity to learn more about what’s out there," she said. "I would say get out to as many different places as you can."
For more information on the City Nature Challenge, visit CityNatureChallenge.org and FriendsofRogers.org/city-nature-challenge.
More information on the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center can be found at FriendsofRogers.org and the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center, Inc. Facebook page.
The challenge is an international effort to get people outdoors and exploring nature, while also contributing to community science by recording any plants, animals, and insects they see on the iNaturalist app. It's also a friendly competition to see who can record the most observations and the most species.
Friends of Rogers Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone said because Sherburne is so small, she expanded their area to include Chenango, Madison, and Otsego Counties. Any observations recorded in iNaturalist in these three counties between April 26 and 29 will automatically count toward the area's total for the challenge.
"If everybody comes to Rogers Center and does it at Rogers Center then you’re going to have everybody probably recording and uploading the same species. So that’s why I made it three counties," Rathbone explained. "I expanded it beyond Sherburne so we could get more variety and try to get some more baseline data of what’s out there this time of year in our general region."
Observations can be recorded in iNaturalist using photos or sound recordings. Rathbone encourages taking photos or recordings directly in the app, as it will automatically include location information, as long as the phone's GPS is turned on.
Otherwise, photos can be taken with a digital camera or on a cell phone and then uploaded to iNaturalist, with location information entered manually.
Video tutorials on using iNaturalist can be found on the Friends of Rogers website at FriendsofRogers.org/city-nature-challenge.
After the four-day event, April 30 to May 5 will be dedicated to identification of the animals and plants recorded in iNaturalist.
"Even if you are a new person to this, you can go in and help identify things that other teams have uploaded. So other people who have uploaded for us, people who have uploaded in Massachusetts, or wherever," said Rathbone. "There have been some years where I'm uploading my stuff and I see other people’s things and, oh, well I know what that is, I can confirm that they got that correct. So it just helps."
Not only does the City Nature Challenge encourage people to get outside and get active, but it also contributes to community science by providing data to scientists and researchers.
"Anything that gets loaded into iNaturalist, once it has been identified and confirmed by two other people, it becomes research grade. So there’s a lot of scientists and researchers out there who just do not have the budget or the staff to do a lot of the field work, so they go into iNaturalist and they pull data from that," Rathbone said.
Last year, Rathbone said the area had a total of 33 observers, 783 observations, and 326 species. She hopes to break those records this year with 50 observers, over 1,000 observations, and at least 350 species recorded.
Those interested in seeing what has been recorded in Chenango, Madison, and Otsego County for the City Nature Challenge can do so by opening the app and clicking the "Projects" tab, and searching for "City Nature Challenge 2024: Sherburne, NY."
Rathbone encourages area residents to get outside this weekend and try their hand at nature observation.
"It gets you out, it gets you moving, it gets you interacting with the nature that’s out there, so hopefully sparking your curiosity to learn more about what’s out there," she said. "I would say get out to as many different places as you can."
For more information on the City Nature Challenge, visit CityNatureChallenge.org and FriendsofRogers.org/city-nature-challenge.
More information on the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center can be found at FriendsofRogers.org and the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center, Inc. Facebook page.
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