An online map recording Border residents' sightings of plants and animals is officially launching on Thursday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Albury Conservation Company has received funding to develop the 'Albury Wodonga Nature Map', modelled off a citizen science platform developed in Canberra in 2014.
Charles Sturt environmental science student Amy Daeche has been among the top contributors, since the link went live three weeks ago.
"It's an amazing encouragement to get people out in their backyard and you don't need to know what you're looking for," she said.
"The right people will be making decisions for this area with that data, which is so important in such a development hotspot.
"Something in your backyard could be of ecological importance - one person recorded a frog that ended up being a Sloane's froglet.
"The more eyes you can get on to this, the more you can piece together the puzzle."
Albury Conservation Company executive officer Sam Niedra said ecologists were identifying the species of flora and fauna detailed in uploads.
"It's bringing people from both sides of the river together ... someone might contribute a plant in Albury, and we've got a moderator in Yackandandah confirming the sighting," he said.
"There's spatial information for a lot of the parks in Albury and Wodonga - you can develop a field guide for your favourite reserve.
"We have a workshop in a couple weeks with council staff, highlighting its functionality."
The Canberra nature map has resulted in 1.5 million wildlife records to the Atlas of Living Australia.
NatureMapr co-founder Michael Mulvaney said some people had recorded more than 500 species in their backyard.
"In the six years that NatureMapr has been going, we've had people record more rare plants than what the scientific community has recorded in the previous 110 years, so much so we have taken 30 plants off the rare plant list," he said.
"It took us probably half the year to get 70 people contributing, and Albury has got 70 people within three weeks, so that's pretty impressive."
IN OTHER NEWS:
There has also been a spike in activity during COVID-19 restrictions.
"Last winter in Canberra, we were getting about 50 sites a week, and this winter it's up to 500," Dr Mulvaney said.
Thursday night (August 20) is the official launch of the Nature Map, made possible by federal government funding and funding from the Ross Trust and the support of councils.
Albury Conservation Company is hosting a Zoom webinar from 7pm to 8pm. Visit www.alburyconservationco.org.au for details.
