From East Bay Times
Citizen scientists aid in environmental data collection
By Lou Fancher
Everyone’s free gift: nature. It can provide joy, education, and possibly, a vocation or hobby....
Recognizing the perils of extinction, a cadre of citizen scientists are working to preserve and protect this birthright....
Online technology is playing a major role as citizen scientists protect birds, sea stars, redwood trees, bees, native plants, oceans and overall biodiversity.
Apps like iNaturalist operate like Facebook feeds and allow people to record and upload a picture of what they see in nature onto an online platform. The program began in 2008 as the master’s project of three UC Berkeley students [Jessica Kline, Ken-ichi Ueda, and Nathan Agrin], and was acquired in 2014 by the California Academy of Sciences....