LESSON 2
finding grasslands near you using inat website
Now that you have the iNaturalist App, the next challenge is to find a grassland to survey. We recommend spending some time on iNaturalist’s website as viewed on your desktop computer to familiarize yourself with the program. Under the Projects page, below, enter "Southeastern Grasslands Initiative" into the search menu and then click "Go" (see below). You can also find grasslands near you by using the mobile app (click here to learn more).
Check out the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative Project on iNaturalist
The Southeastern Grasslands Initiative Project is an “umbrella” project that includes dozens of smaller “collection” projects, each representing a different type of grassland found in a specific region. These appear under the Leaderboard, which allows you to compare various types of grasslands. Scroll down the page below the Leaderboard until you see the Map of Observations.
We have created dozens of SGI projects, and are in the process of creating many more. In the top left corner of the map, use the + symbol to zoom in on the southeastern U.S. to find a grassland project near you. If you don’t see a project near you it could be that we are in the process of creating one. Or, click here to learn how to establish your own project.
In the map series above, as you zoom in on the SGI project map, you can see as an example “Biodiversity of Western Valley Limestone Barrens” in west-central Tennessee. Continue to zoom in and you can see that we have mapped more than 130 examples of this rare, hillside rocky grassland type (click here to see what this grassland looks like on the ground). Zoom in on a particular set of barrens and you can see where they are in relation to roads, trails, etc. Finally, zoom all the way in to see a close-up aerial image (if viewed on satellite view) of the individual barren. Many of these barrens are on private property so part of the challenge is (1) navigating to an individual barren and (2) securing permission from landowners to visit a particular barren.
If you don't see a project in your area, don't let that stop you. Contact us and we will help you find local grasslands in your area that you can help to document or simply go exploring for them on your own. On our main website, click on "Galleries"in the dropdown menu to see examples of some of the best remaining grasslands in the southeastern U.S. to see examples of what you might expect for your ecoregion. But keep in mind many grassland remnants are tiny, degraded, and may not look like these high quality examples.
