A light chilly breeze rustled through the trees as the bright sun cast shadows on a crisp January afternoon at Lone Fir Cemetery.
More than 25 people gathered by the Soldiers Monument for Metro’s first bioblitz of the year — a short, intensive survey to map biological diversity. This one focused on the cemetery’s diverse lichen population.
Beginner’s bioblitz: 4 tips for success
1. Come prepared. Some locations may have poor cell service. Download the iNaturalist app on your mobile device and create an account before you head out.
2. Get digital in nature. Whether you use your phone or a camera, be ready to capture photos of your observations in the field.
3. Work all the angles. Taking multiple shots from different angles (the underside of the leaf, the top and bottom of the flower, the stem) can help better distinguish a plant from similar species.
4. Choose your own adventure. Metro-led bioblitzes can be guided or self-guided, as participants prefer. When adding an observation to the app, it will automatically be added to any relevant projects if it matches its parameters.
Identification guides and magnifying glasses were neatly arranged on a table for everyone to use as they embarked on this self-guided adventure. After a brief introduction on how to participate, the group dispersed throughout the cemetery on their own or in smaller groups in search for lichen and to document their findings on iNaturalist, a free and user-friendly online platform that can help identify plants, animals, fungi and other types of life, including lichen. To use the app, you simply take or upload a photo through the app, fill out the details of the species, and the app will suggest what you may have found.
One of the participants, Sara Walker, came across this event when she was looking for outdoor things to do. “I’m recovering from an injury so I was looking for something slow-paced,” she said.
It was Walker’s first time at Lone Fir Cemetery, but she’s used iNaturalist for years.
“When I first started using the app, there weren’t a lot of things like it,” she said. “It was one of those things where [there are] experts or people [who] have a great interest in certain species. They identify things later. They’ll explain to you how to tell the difference between one species and another, like, with the small details.”
She partnered up with Janice Choy-Weber, who was using the app for the first time.
“It does a lot more than I thought it did at first glance,” Choy-Weber said. While she preferred a guided experience, she appreciated wandering around the cemetery to get to know the site more.
Some participants stayed for the entire event while others left early, taking advantage of the drop-in format. Participants were given until the next day to upload their observations via the app or desktop.
As long as observations were uploaded within the given parameters — at Lone Fir Cemetery, between Jan. 25 and 26, identified as some sort of lichen — they were automatically added in the “Lone Fir Lichen BioBlitz 2025” project. In iNaturalist, a “project” is an inventory of species within a specific time frame and geographic area.
In the end, this project included 30 observers making nearly 200 observations that identified 48 species.
Metro’s community education and stewardship team began hosting bioblitzes, also known as ecoblitzes, in 2023. Stewardship programs lead Jessica Rojas started incorporating bioblitzes to engage younger people who enjoyed being outdoors but also spend time on their phones. “It’s like a social media for plant nerds,” Rojas explained.
But the app does more than just identify plants. iNaturalist is an open-source platform that, unless users choose to hide their location, provides valuable data that helps scientists and other users better understand biodiversity.
Metro Parks and Nature scientist Adrienne St. Clair uses the app to track what community members are discovering at Metro’s parks and natural areas.
“As a botanist, I’ll look at peoples’ observations in our parks to help Metro understand the bigger picture of what’s happening in our areas,” she said. “I will hopefully be using iNaturalist data to help me build that list of what plants we have on what Metro properties in the future.”
Save the dates:
City Nature Challenge: April 25-28
Upload observations to the app by May 4.
Results announced on May 5.
This year, Metro is participating in the City Nature Challenge, an international effort to document plants and wildlife. It’s a friendly competition to see which cities can log the most observations. To support work being done by the Pacific Northwest Oak Alliance, Metro-led bioblitzes for the challenge are focusing on nature parks with oak habitats.
The challenge is designed to be flexible, allowing people to participate without needing to attend a guided program. Plus, Metro’s bioblitzes may include identification guides, magnifying glasses to borrow, refreshments, and staff on hand to assist with the app.
“My goal is to take down the barrier of science and have a one-on-one interaction with people who just love the space that we live in,” St. Clair added. “It’s fun to look at things together and try to identify things together.”
Sign up for a bioblitz and other nature programming