Date: Thursday, March 5th
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Location: Montana Natural History Center
Cost: FREE, but please register

REGISTER HERE

Snap a photo of your nature observations wherever you roam to conserve our state’s remarkable wild diversity! 

Can using a phone app help scientists with conservation work? Bryce Maxell,  program director at the Montana Natural Heritage Program, will show you how to collect and access information on Montana’s plants and animals using iNaturalist. He’ll also explain how agencies use your data to inform conservation of native species and control of invasive species. Come learn about this fun interactive learning tool!

The Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTNHP) is Montana’s source for reliable and objective information on over 18,000 different species and habitats that occur in Montana, emphasizing those of conservation concern. The MTNHP has centralized over 6.1 million observation records and over 515,000 surveys for species, assigned conservation status ranks to over 5,000 species, constructed predicted habitat suitability models for over 2,300 species, and created predicted biodiversity layers for vertebrates, species of conservation concern, and noxious weeds. This and other information the MTNHP manages informs stakeholders in a variety of environmental review, permitting, and planning processes and it can be easily accessed by anyone on the program’s Montana Field Guide, Map Viewer, Species Snapshot, and other web pages.

iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you while generating data for science and conservation. Get connected with a community of millions scientists and naturalists who can help you learn more about nature! What’s more, by recording and sharing your observations, you’ll create research-quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.

Instructor: Bryce Maxell (PhD in Fish and Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana) is the Program Coordinator with the Montana Natural Heritage Program. He has worked with the MTNHP in various capacities dating back to 1996 and has led the program in since 2015. Bryce has conducted research on seaweeds in the Puget Sound, a number of species in Australia and New Zealand, and Harlequin Ducks, amphibians, reptiles, bats, and invasive species in Montana.