Canada-wide ‘Big Backyard Bioblitz’ helps conservation efforts

This week brings a great chance for Calgarians to give Mother Nature a helping hand.

And you don’t have to go very far to pitch in, to be part of the Big Backyard Bioblitz.

It’s an event organized by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC),  helping the agency’s efforts to collect information on wildlife and work toward preserving habitat for at-risk species.

Participants are encouraged to catalogue and take photos of things like insects and birds in their yards and beyond.

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“Bioblitzers can take a walk around their city — take a little bit more time to go get that ice cream and observe what’s around you,” the NCC’s Carissa Sideroff said. “And then hopefully as you start to appreciate more nature around you, we can work toward conserving that nature.”

People taking part in the event are also asked to send the NCC information on invasive species in their yards and elsewhere.

“Creeping bellflowers are invasive to Calgary, so we should not have them in our backyards,” Sideroff said. “They outcompete other flowers that should be in our gardens.”

2023 is the fourth time the NNC has run the Big Backyard Biolblitz. The organization says more than 9,100 Canadians took part in 2022, sending in information on almost 53,000 things they observed in nature.

Calgarian Dena Hanson and her family are planning to participate this year.

“It’s just great to get out in nature and take the kids out,” Hanson said. “They love discovering, and even for me I can find out things that I never really  noticed before.”

The Big Backyard Bioblitz runs from Thursday, Aug. 3 to Sunday, Aug. 7, with more information available at https://natureconservancy.ca/en/