Apps for Environmental Awareness: Use Your Smartphone to Battle Invasive Species

There are many ways in which the new applications available for mobile phones are helping to promote environmental awareness and green living. And now cellphone users in some of the National Parks and National Recreation Areas this summer can use their smartphones for more than just pictures, texting, and phone calls. "What's Invasive" is a new application available for Android and iPhones that can help park rangers and park visitors locate, identify, and control invasive plant species.

The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing lab at the UCLA and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area have created an app to help locate non-native plants. The app allows people to take a photo of a species, tag its location and automatically send the information to the "What's Invasive" server. The app also identifies a list of some of the worst offenders - six highly invasive plants found in environmentally sensitive public areas that need to be eradicated.

Invasive plants can pose a significant threat to native plants, to the surrounding habitat, and to wildlife in the area. In the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the world's largest urban national park, it is estimated that the 1000 or so native plants vie for competition with some 1000 non-native species. While not all these plants constitute a threat, there are many weeds there that displace the native plants. Invasive weeds also contribute to wildfire hazards.

While government surveys are often done to track the prevalence and impact of invasive species in an area, these are often lengthy undertakings, and by the time they're complete, the information is out-of-date. Apps like "What's Invasive" provide for a real-time monitoring of the problem. The photographs uploaded via the app literally provide a snapshot of an area, which can help the park service determine where and how they need to respond to invasive plant growth. Furthermore the mobile app will help the Park Service by using visitors - "citizen scientists" - not just the rangers, to track these issues. Not only does this help spread out "the work" of monitoring invasive species, but it also serves as an educational tool for those visiting the area.

You can download the app for your iPhone here.

The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing hopes to be able to develop other interactive tools like the "What's Invasive" app that will help park visitors take advantage of some of the underutilized areas of the park system.

As summer approaches, many of us will head to the National Parks and National Recreation Areas. Arguably being outdoors is one of the best ways to help promote environmental awareness. The "What's Invasive" app is just one way to turn that awareness into action.

Photo Credit: jans canon on Flickr