Connecting with the outdoors by learning and using iNaturalist while protecting vulnerable communities

Bryan I. Rodriguez, Jennifer M. Adams and Esmeralda Cabrera, Latino Outdoors, CA, Jorge Ramos, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Background/Question/Methods
We inspire, connect, and engage Latino communities in the outdoors and embrace cultura y familia as part of the outdoor narrative, ensuring our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented. In these challenging times, members of Latino Outdoors nationwide found ways to recreate responsibly in the outdoors while building and maintaining a sense of community virtually. In this talk, three Bay Area locals and Latino Outdoors San Francisco Bay Area chapter leaders, Jennifer Adams, Bryan Rodriguez and Esmeralda Cabrera will share their experiences on how they recreated responsibly during the pandemic and how they used apps like iNaturalist to stay connected to the environment and the LO community during shelter-in-places.
Results/Conclusions
The Latino Outdoors found the experiences with iNaturalist ranging from 1) as opportunity to engage with community with the app during community hiking events on the trail, 2) to identify plants in the outdoors, and 3) because of its ease of use, local exploration and ability to use for both urban and open spaces. Additional activities started by the Latino Outdoors community through their values of culture y familia, included events such as family friendly BioBlitzes (in-person and remote); dynamic webinars focusing on inclusivity in the outdoors and traditional ecological knowledge; and participation of Latinx community members to existing city wide events to promote outdoor engagement. Finally, Latino Outdoors will be presenting the results of "Proyecto ceanothus", a community driven phonology monitoring science project on the important and widespread California ecological community with a mission to introduce people to science via iNaturalist through the power of community.