A Rocha Brooksdale Biodiversity Project kick-off!
Welcome to the A Rocha Canada Brooksdale Biodiversity Project. Here we hope to catalogue the biodiversity at Brooksdale Environmental Centre and share records among team members, volunteers, and visitors. This project can also include biodiversity observations from A Rocha-related activities within the broader Little Campbell River watershed, such as bird walks, habitat restoration activities, or species surveys. All are welcome and encouraged to contribute observations of any taxa (birds, mammals, fish, plants, fungi, insects, slime molds - you name it).
This project also kicks off a larger A Rocha Canada umbrella project, which will encompass the A Rocha Brooksdale Biodiversity Project along with projects from other ARC hubs, such as Cedar Haven Eco-Centre (ON), the Boreal Ecology Centre (MB), and Northern BC. Our hope is to encourage friendly competition among hubs to catalogue as many species as possible on the pieces of land that we collectively steward across Canada.
Why did we chose iNaturalist as a platform for storing our biodiversity records? iNaturalist contributes "research grade" observations to global databases (such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility). Here at Brooksdale we are blessed with the task of stewarding an amazing property within the Little Campbell River watershed, and by recording the biodiversity present here on iNaturalist we can contribute to scientific research and conservation worldwide. iNaturalist also provides a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to submit and share records among team members, building a sense of community both here at Brooksdale and also across Canada. For example, a farmer working in the fields can quickly submit (via smart phone) a geo-referenced observation of a toad in the kale patch that can automatically contribute to the science team's Western Toad monitoring program.
Finally, we hope to encourage all those we work with to know and understand our place through keeping a close eye on the creatures who share it with us.
Happy naturalizing!
