1 Million Observations and Counting: A Milestone for BC’s Biodiversity

We’ve reached an incredible milestone: over 1 million observations in British Columbia’s provincial parks! This is thanks to the photos and audios from people visiting our parks, as well as dedication of our summer teams of naturalists who we hire each summer for “the best job in the world”. None of it would have been possible without the financial and planning support that we have received from the provincial government, the Hakai Institute, and the Sitka Foundation.

When the project began, there were only 17,000 recorded observations in BC’s parks. In just six years, we’ve rocketed to over 1 million observations, leading to some remarkable discoveries, including species never before recorded in Canada and some entirely new species to science!

British Columbia is home to the richest biodiversity in Canada, including numerous rare and threatened species. With over 1,000 provincial protected areas covering about 15% of the province, these areas are critical for preserving these species and their habitats. Documenting what exists within them and where is essential for deepening our understanding of BC’s biodiversity and strengthening our efforts to conserve it.

To everyone who’s contributed photos and audio recordings: thank you for your time, curiosity, and passion for the natural world. Whether you’ve uploaded a single observation or hundreds, of a rare plant or a common bird, your contributions have created a valuable resource for scientists, conservationists, and policymakers for years to come.

While reaching one million observations is an incredible milestone, we’re not stopping here. We’re already dreaming bigger: why not get to 10 million observations by 2030!? Together, there is no limit to what we can achieve!

If you’re just discovering this initiative, now is the perfect time to join our growing community of citizen scientists. It’s simple: if you enjoy exploring BC’s provincial parks and have a phone or camera, you’re already equipped to contribute! By snapping photos of any wild organism or tracks and scat, and uploading them to iNaturalist, your observations automatically become part of this project.

Here’s to the next million observations, and the volunteers, scientists, and supporters who will make it all possible. Together, let’s continue to uncover and protecting BC’s remarkable biodiversity, one observation at a time.

You can watch the increasing observations in real time in our umbrella project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bc-parks), and you can read more about the BC

Biodiversity Program on our website (https://www.bcinat.com/) .

Arianne Nickels (program manager) arianne35

Brian Starzomski (co-director, University of Victoria) @bstarzomski

John Reynolds (co-director, Simon Fraser University) @johndreynolds

That's a Wrap!

It’s hard to believe that after visiting 133 provincially protected areas over 105 days in the field, we’re wrapping up our busy 2021 field season. Now that the weather is changing, our team has been busy uploading their finds to iNaturalist - and looking back we’ve made some cool discoveries!

The 2021 field season saw the team starting on rainy Vancouver Island in April, where we found rare species such as wandering salamander and sharp-tailed snake. Next, the team completed two tours through the South Coast and the Okanagan, where they worked in record breaking heat in June to document strange species like the gold-base tubic moth and endangered nine-spotted lady beetle. Finally, we braved bears and bugs in northern BC through July and August where they documented many species at risk, including caribou and little brown bats.

Field trip with BC Parks to Clayoquot Arm Provincial Park.

Bioblitzing Miracle Beach Provincial Park.

It’s hard to pick our top moments of the field season, but a couple of highlights include the discovery of a species of globular springtail that is new to science and taking the first ever photo of a living Tephritis teerinki fly in British Columbia. You can find links to these and other amazing observations in the Project Highlights section of our website!

iNaturalist Challenge in Ecological Reserves

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Ecological Reserves Act in British Columbia, the BC Parks iNaturalist Project and Friends of Ecological Reserves challenged themselves and the community to reach 50,000 iNaturalist observations in Ecological Reserves by the end of 2021. Although COVID-19 protocols and wildfires prevented us from meeting this goal, we tripled the number of observations in Ecological Reserves in a single year, bringing the total over 30,000 as of mid-November! Together we added 800 species to the Ecological Reserves iNaturalist Project and found new locations of several rare species, notably bifid crestwort, and rubber boa.

The BC Parks iNaturalist team bioblitzed 17 Ecological Reserves this season with the help of ER wardens and local ecologists. Our experiences in four of these EcoReserves are detailed below.

May 1: Comox Lake Bluffs Ecological Reserve

On a gorgeous spring day, we met ER warden Mandy Vaughan and local ecologists Jason Straka, Randal Mindell, and Jack Bindernagel at the entrance to Comox Lake Bluffs. As we ascended out of the dense forest to the rocky, Arbutus-lined bluffs, our cameras clicked constantly while we captured hundreds of photos of plants including checker lilies, Oregon stonecrop, and serpentine fern. On this one Saturday, our group gathered 1,700 iNaturalist observations of 340 species spanning the entire EcoReserve. Thank you all for volunteering your time and knowledge.

Checker lily by Lena Dietz Chiasson

May 7: Bowser Ecological Reserve

We joined ER warden Gerry Van Der Wolf at Bowser and set off just as the rain began to fall. Pushing through waist-deep salal, we struggled our way to a pond where many expectant rough-skinned newts glided just below the surface and northern red-legged frogs’ eyes bulged above the water line. Dodging devil’s club, we hiked along the riverside to a low-lying area populated by western maidenhair fern, skunk cabbage, and liverworts. Finally, we scrambled under decades-old fallen Douglas fir, recording sightings of western red backed salamanders as we returned to our vehicles. Gerry, thank you so much for guiding us through the bush all day and iNatting alongside our team.

Rough-skinned newt by Kate McKeown

May 8-9: Woodley Range Ecological Reserve

Our major bioblitz of the season brought together ecologists Jason Straka, Randal Mindell, Andrew Simon, Scott Gilmore, Kristen and James Miskelly, Finn McGhee, Daniel Tucker, Shane Johnson, Leah Ramsay, Dave Fraser, Ryan Batten, and Erica McClaren from across Vancouver Island. Over the course of a single weekend, our group recorded 6,900 observations of 700 species, including 24 species at risk such as sharp-tailed snake, purple martin, bog bird's foot trefoil, and Steindachner’s shieldback katydid. This major achievement would not have been possible without the generosity of the ecologists who volunteered their time and expertise, and the kindness and support of ER wardens Gary Backlund, Katherine Banman and her daughter, Annika who organized our large group and opened their home to us so that we could access this private Ecological Reserve. Thank you all!

Sharp-tailed snake by Finn McGhee

May 23: Field’s Lease Ecological Reserve

ER warden Robert Calder met us on site, and we climbed the short distance to the highest point in the protected area. From there, we had a 360o view of the antelope bitterbrush, rubber rabbitbrush, and sagebrush that stretch to all corners of the modest 4.2-hectare EcoReserve. Although we only spent a few hours in this area, we were able to appreciate and capture the unique arid grassland ecosystem found nowhere else in Canada. Robert, thank you for teaching us about the history of this EcoReserve and the beautiful plants found within.

Antelope bitterbrush by Erin Springinotic

We would also like to thank ER wardens Diane Moran and Ron Laidman (San Juan River Estuary) who provided us with directions to their EcoReserve, BC Parks Community Outreach Specialist Rike Moon who connected us with ER wardens to make these meet ups possible, and all the other community scientists who have contributed their observations to iNaturalist this year and in years past. We are looking forward to another great year in 2022!