DABB Bytes: 2022 Driftless Area Nature Challenge!

Hello, and happy mid-winter chills to you!

Beginning in April—yes, let’s think spring here—Strive 2 Thrive Coulee Region, along with collaborating partners Mississippi Valley Conservancy, WisCorps and UW-L Biology department, will be hosting a 2022 Driftless Area Nature Challenge! From April 24, 2022 through September 30, 2022, you can join the iNaturalist app community and become a “member” of our Nature Challenge. Upload, identify, and share as many living things around you and out in nature as you like! All you need is a smart phone and the iNaturalist app.

“EEK! What IS that thing?!” Take a picture of it! Upload it and share it to iNaturalist and learn what kind of interestingly “creepy” things are right here in the Coulee Region (and maybe learn they aren’t so “creepy” after all).  Or, take a photo of any living thing you find—animals, plants, fungi, insects—we want lots of identifications! All your uploads as “Citizen Scientists” can help real scientists see patterns in population counts and migrations, possible affects of climate change, and help make predictions for human, animal, and ecosystem resilience.

Are there prizes for taking all these pictures? YOU BETCHA! There will be cash prizes for the most observations and the most species, as well as a random $100 cash drawing for all Nature Challenge participants. Winners will be announced October 15!

Keep posting your winter species findings to iNaturalist, stay warm, and I will be back in a couple weeks to introduce our new “Spotlight on Nature Event Series” for 2022!

-Erica Black, DABB Coordinator