PMN iNat Team updates for 2024
PMN iNaturalist Team News
The PMN iNaturalist Team: The PMN iNat Team Members are PMNs John Lisowski, Steve Tirone, Buck Sleuman and Ken Knapp. Our goal is to promote the use of iNaturalist as a way for PMNs to contribute to community/citizen science! If you have a special interest in iNaturalist, please contact one of the team members to discuss ways to get involved!
The PMN iNaturalist Project: The PMN iNaturalist project is for collecting and sharing observations made in Pennsylvania by trainees and volunteers of Pennsylvania Master Naturalist. This is a PA Master Naturalist approved service project and recording observations to this project qualifies for volunteer service. Since its creation, PMNs have entered
54,288 observations in the PMN iNat project representing 4,617 species! Visit the PA Master Naturalist iNaturalist project page.
Reminder: We are happy when PMNs actively use iNaturalist and capture wildlife observations wherever they roam, however please keep in mind that only iNat observations that are made in Pennsylvania should be added to the Pennsylvania Master Naturalist iNat Project. Our iNat Project Manager will periodically audit the contents of the PMN iNat project and will remove observations from places outside of Pennsylvania. Your out-of-state observations will remain in iNat, but will be disassociated from the PMN iNat project. Please also keep in mind that observations should be of “wild” organisms, not cultivated ones.
If you are using the iNat app on your smartphone, please be sure to turn on your phone’s location services so that the photos that you upload to iNat have the observation location included! You can also add the location manually, but it is much easier to let your phone do the work!
BioBlitz: A BioBlitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species as possible within a designated location and time period. BioBlitzes are great ways to engage the public to connect to their environment while generating useful data for science and conservation. They provide opportunities for naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public to meet in person in the great outdoors and are a lot of fun! Check out the planning and conducting a BioBlitz page on the iNaturalist website. More info and recommendations from the PMN iNat Team on how to plan and execute your own BioBlitz will be coming soon!
2026 City Nature Challenge: The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is the major international BioBlitz! This year, Part 1 will be April 24 – April 27, 2026 and is the time period for making and posting observations. Part 2 will be April 28 – May 3, 202 6and is the period for identifying what was observed. We will again encourage all PMNs to participate! Here is a link to general info about the CNC.
Introduce Yourself on iNat:: iNaturalist users are required to give a username and can optionally also provide a “Display Name.” If you haven’t already done so, you may want to add your real name in the “Display Name,” but only if you are comfortable with doing so. This “Display Name” is the name that will be displayed on your iNat profile as well as for copyright attribution. It is also useful to the iNat Team as it can be included in PMN project data downloads for reporting! Check out easy steps to set your Display Name in iNat.
Thank you for your continued interest in iNaturalist and the PMN iNat project!
Go back to main PMN Citizen Science page.
