VT Center for Ecostudies presents iNaturalist to Milton Conservation Commission; BioBlitz preparations underway

Dana Williams of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies demonstrated the iNaturalist app to the Milton Conservation Commission on June 23, highlighting how the platform supports wildlife surveys and can be used to study predator–prey interactions and other conservation questions.

The presentation, given at the Community Room on Bombardier Road, explained that iNaturalist’s Explore function is publicly accessible and that observations can feed into VCE’s Atlas of Life projects. Shirley Zundell was identified in the minutes as a local Audubon volunteer who helped introduce commission members to iNaturalist.

Commissioner Laurie DiCesare said she is preparing handouts for BioBlitz participants and said the commission will schedule a special meeting before the BioBlitz to finalize preparations, rather than meeting on its usual fourth-Tuesday date. The BioBlitz outreach is intended to engage residents in documenting local biodiversity and to provide material the commission can use for education and planning.

Why it matters: community science platforms such as iNaturalist can expand local datasets for species occurrence and help municipal conservation planning by providing citizen-contributed observations that inform habitat and species monitoring.

The commission also included nature notes in the meeting: DiCesare reported photographing a rare Hackberry Emperor butterfly and posting it to iNaturalist; Tim Cunningham photographed a juvenile red-spotted newt; and Cassandra LaFayette said a photograph of a Northern Woodland Jumping Mouse helped identify a previously unexplained animal sighting.

Next steps: the commission will set a date for the special BioBlitz preparatory meeting and finalize handouts and outreach plans for the event.