BUG Initiative
Don’t sleep on the BUG Initiative from CNPS! It’s easy to make a difference as a community scientist: Simple take photos of the native animals you see on, in, under, or around native plants, and upload them to the iNaturalist app. The BUG initiative will catalog and count biodiversity in native gardens and compare to conventional gardens.
- Download the free iNaturalist app in the Apple or Google store and create your account at iNaturalist.org.
- Join the two BUG projects on iNaturalist:
- Observations made in California public gardens that are already part of the BUG project will automatically get uploaded to the Biodiversity in Urban Gardens: California Public Gardens · iNaturalist project. See the list of participating public gardens.
- For observations you make at home, in neighborhoods, or anywhere else in urban habitats, you will need to join the Biodiversity in Urban Gardens: California Home & Neighborhood Gardens · iNaturalist project and then manually add your observations.