New Phone App Combats ‘Invaders’

• NPS Enlists the Public’s Help in Weeding Out Non-Native Plant Species

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Noxious aliens are invading the Santa Monica Mountains, crowding out the natives and destroying habitat. The National Park Service, working together with UCLA’s Center for Embed-ded Networked Sensing and a Web and App design company called Take Five Labs, has developed a new tool to combat the invasion and the public is invited to participate in the fight. It's not the plot of a 1950s horror movie, instead, it's a new smartphone application, or app, that helps park visitors identify and document non-native plant species.
Using the free app, individuals with GPS-enabled mobile phones can contribute to locating invasive species by making geo-tagged observations and taking photos of them to alert the National Park Service of the spread of habitat-destroying plants.
“Invasive non-native plants are a huge ongoing problem,” NPS Policy and External Affairs Manager Lauren Newman told the Malibu Surfside News. “UCLA is really interested in how we can interact with the environment using technology, this was an opportunity to partner with them to help raise public awareness [about this issue].”
One of the focuses of the UCLA’s CENS is “developing freely available systems for enabling citizen science activities that preserve our natural environment,” according to the NPS announcement on the program.
Newman said that the invasive plant program is an opportunity for citizen scientists to make a real contribution—a reflection of the growing trend towards recognizing the value of data collected by amateur scientists—but it’s also designed to be fun.
“It’s great for families who like a specific activity when they visit the parks,” Newman said, describing the program as a combination of treasure or scavenger hunt and science field lesson. “It’s a fun but it’s real science that the parks department is involved in every day,” Newman said. “If you don’t have a smartphone, there are still lots of opportunities to participate. GPS units, ordinary cell phones and cameras can all be used in the program.”
Instructions, information on the program, a list of invasive plants with photos and descriptions and links for downloading the smartphone app can be found at http://whatsinvasive.com/