An enthusiastic group of 30 people including children attended a workshop on Sunday at Porcupine Reserve hosted by Gunnedah Urban Landcare Group.
The event was run by visiting ecologists Jon Sullivan and Tim Curran, from Lincoln University, New Zealand. Jon is an avid nature watcher and the site administrator for iNaturalist NZ, an online platform (app) that allows users to record observations from their natural environment. He has run dozens of workshops on how to use iNaturalist and obsessively (his word!) makes thousands of observations of nature every week.
Tim is a relative newcomer to iNaturalist and was converted by Jon. Tim grew up in Gunnedah, bushwalking on Bindea. He has researched the ecology of semi-evergreen vine thicket (dry rainforest) found on Bindea and elsewhere around the northwest slopes. Tim is preparing a fire management plan for Bindea for GULG.
The day was about learning how to take photographs of plant and animals and upload them to iNaturalist for identification by many experts from around Australia and the world. iNaturalists allows people to join others in documenting the plants, animals and fungi of Bindea.
Those in attendance were amazed at the variety of plants and animals in the reserve. After a short talk the participants headed off to document flora.
GULG chair George Truman encourages locals who regularly walk the tracks to join iNaturalist (which is available as an app) and join the group ‘Bindea (Porcupine Reserve) and surrounds: plants, animals and fungi’ , take photos and upload them to help build a library of species and and where it is located.
Mr Truman said it doesn’t matter if users are not sure what the subject pictured in their photograph is called, as there are people using app who help with identification of species.
Those keen to get involved with using iNaturalist, but who couldn’t get to the workshop, can contact chair George Truman at [email protected]. Members of GULG are more than happy to help them get started.
