SAN DIEGO — Earth Day celebrations continue in San Diego, and the Natural History Museum is asking you to get involved.
For the sixth year in a row, they’re taking part in the City Nature Challenge.
It's a friendly competition that encourages people to get outside and take pictures of what they see. It's organized globally by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and locally by the SDSU Biodiversity Museum.
"That's from plants to animals, fungi, insects, anything that captures your interest. That's kind of the goal is to get the everyday person out there and enjoying nature and helping to document science for us," said Olivia Poulos, the San Diego Natural History Museum's Community Engagement Manager.
Poulos said taking part is easy.
Just download the inaturalist app, make an account and upload images.
From there, AI technology, combined with a community of experts, will determine exactly what the image is and let you know.
"We're so lucky that we have our researchers and scientists that are going to be helping out with those identifications as well. So, you don't have to have any knowledge. This is for beginners, this is for all expertise levels," said Poulos.
One of those experts who helps make identifications is the San Diego Natural History Museum's Curator of Botany, Jon Rebman.
Rebman said San Diego isn’t just “America's Finest City,” it's one of the most bio-diverse as well.
"Here in San Diego County, we have about 3,000 different kinds of plants," said Rebman.
During the City Nature Challenge, San Diego will be competing against cities worldwide for the highest number of observations.
Last year, we had 20,000.
The goal this year is 25,000.
"There are events in Athens and Malaysia and Venezuela, which is just absolutely incredible," said Poulos.
And it's not just about sharing pictures and information. Your involvement can also help researchers discover new species.
"We had a paper just recently published, a scientific paper where we were able to show that there are 24 new records of plants in our county, many of those came in through inaturalist. We actually incorporated those observers, and they became authors of this scientific paper along with us,” said Rebman.
The City Nature Challenge runs April 26 through April 29, during which time there will be guided walks and events hosted by nature organizations from around the county.
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