Next time you are out on a nature walk, don't forget to carry your camera with you.
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Your sighting may not only give a boost to the council's existing environmental data but could help in discovering a rare species.
The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) has partnered with Canberra NatureMapr team to support the project across the region.
Mayor Tim Overall said that the app is a great opportunity for locals to get outdoors and share what they find in their own backyard.
"Being able to contribute to our understanding of species populations across QPRC will help us to create plans that better support native species," Cr Overall said.
Bethany Reczek, Environmental Education Officer at QPRC, said the idea behind the project was to improve their data.
"It is also helpful in engaging people with their surroundings and learning about their environment and at the same time helps us in bolstering our dataset," she said.
"It also fosters that intrinsic environmental values in the community. People here already take great pride in the natural resources so we found it suitable to promote through this project.
"We wanted to include all species, including plants and animals, to get a better knowledge of species distribution across LGA. It also helps us to manage our environmental resources specially when it comes to bushfire affected areas."
To share a sighting, people can download the app and report photos or an audio file of the sighting. If one is unsure about the species, the expert moderators are be able to confirm the same.
Sightings of plants, birds, fungi, fossils, marine, algi, mammals, frogs, fish and insects are published on the Canberra NatureMapr website. If a category of a sighting does not exist, it is automatically created once the picture or an audio file is uploaded.
The project also helps QPRC is tailor and target the community engagement for specific areas they are looking to get more information.
The sightings that are uploaded on NatureMapr is shared with CSIRO's Atlas of Living Australia as well.
