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UPDATE: The value of your nature photos is growing! The Mount Holly Biodiversity Project seeks to get people interested in our local nature and operates on the iNaturalist program. This is a program based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that helps you identify plants, animals, and fungi that you see and records your observations for community and scientific knowledge. iNaturalist observers have discovered new species around the world, including a new species of moss in Vermont! Species thought to have gone extinct have been re-discovered by observers. To date over 6,500 scientific papers have been published using iNaturalist information. Scott Loarie, Executive Director of iNaturalist provides an exciting overview of this citizen driven program in his Ted talk available here. In Mount Holly over 270 citizen scientists have identified 1,363 species of plants, animals and fungi in town. We have identified and mapped many nuisance & invasive species as well as endangered/threatened species within Mount Holly. Most of our submitted observations have also contributed to the Vermont Atlas of Life and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The Mount Holly Biodiversity Project is a great way to enjoy our local nature while contributing to the world's knowledge of biodiversity. We are now in peak season for exploring and enjoying nature right here in town so I invite you to get out with your smart phone or digital camera, take photos of any living thing you see, common or rare, and add your observations to our community project. If you're new to the Project and iNaturalist here is a link to Getting Started guides for new users. The Mount Holly Biodiversity Project is co-sponsored by the Mount Holly Conservation Trust and the Mount Holly Conservation Commission.
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