Posted by MichaelBedingfield
In the six years since our small beginnings we have achieved great things on Canberra Nature Map and I want to thank everyone for their contribution. We now have over 5000 species on our lists and a huge library of photos. As a consequence of your outstanding efforts, we have recently won the ACT LandCare award for Citizen Science. See the photo of Aaron and Rohan on 17 November (*) after receiving the award:
https://citynews.com.au/2019/at-the-act-landcare-awards/
I’d like to suggest that we can do even better by carefully considering what we do and where we go in our explorations of the natural world in the Canberra region. If we look at the number of Nature Reserves, nature parks and other reserves we have on Canberra Nature Map, we see that some of the locations receive a lot of attention while others have very few sightings for them. Our ultimate goal is to get a picture of the biodiversity across the whole landscape, the nature reserves, parks, suburbs and rural districts. It would add a great deal to our value as a nature map if those neglected areas were explored and reported on more often. This would make CNM even more valuable as a citizen science project.
If you look at some of our Defined Locations (12 Nov 2019), there is a lot of variation in the number of photo sightings reported for them.
Some examples:
Namadgi National Park 5070
Black Mountain 2724
ANBG 2664
Jerrabomberra Wetlands 2004
Red Hill Nature Reserve 1819
Tuggeranong Hill 1258
Mount Taylor 647
Mount Jerrabomberra 221
Jerrabomberra Grassland 188
Molonglo Gorge 125
Kama 119
Mcquoids Hill 80
Scrivener Hill 43
Attunga Point 35
Crace Grasslands 32
Yarramundi Grassland 17
Dunlop Grasslands 15
Blue Range 11
Some locations deserve plenty of attention because of their size and ecological diversity, such as Namadgi National Park. But others are simply in need of a bit more exploration. A good example is the Jerrabomberra Wetlands with 2004 and the nearby Jerrabomberra Grassland with only 188. As well as the reserves, perhaps you might find something interesting in an urban park or on a rural roadside.
So we are asking could you please think about visiting those areas that have fewer sightings.
To check out the numbers, click on “Maps” on the top toolbar, then click on “Defined Locations”, which will take you to:
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Locations/Polygons
Click on any Map and it will take you to the Sightings page for that map, for example Black Mountain:
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Locations/Sightings/3
You can also just key in the name of the location to the Quick Search box. You can do the same with Places etc.
Comments are welcome and happy exploring!
* Announcement edited after original posting