Commonwealth_ Canadians across the country have been invited to take part in a first-ever, week-long initiative to find and save Canada‘s biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s fifth annual Big Backyard BioBlitz encourages citizens of all ages to put the indoors behind them and record the insects and vegetation in their backyard. In a backyard, city park, or rural nature reserve, each record counts towards a country-wide mission to monitor and save biodiversity.
This year’s BioBlitz runs from July 28 to Aug. 4. and it’s easy, and anyone can do it. One simply registers on-line at backyardbioblitz.ca, step out into one’s own back yard, photograph or record what plants and animals one observes, and transfer it on to the web site and into a database that is already proving useful for conservation.
BioBlitz is enjoyable for everyone, from the novice naturalist discovering a fresh passion for the world around us to the seasoned naturalist. It transforms everyday people into community scientists by encouraging them to observe the world around them. Each observation has valuable information that will help scientists monitor local biodiversity, document the presence and abundance of invasive species, and monitor patterns and trends in ecosystems over time. As global climate change effects are becoming more evident, such bottom-up real-time observations are required now more than ever in these times and times. The event itself built up and added up to more than in decades alone. A total of more than 47,800 plant and animal photos were recorded in 2024 alone by the participants.
More than 21,800 were reported in the province of Ontario; this irrefutably indicates that the province was significantly actively engaged and had high wildlife population density. BioBlitz has documented over 193,000 records on more than 8,600 species throughout the nation since its initiation. It is home to some of the world’s rare, threatened, or endangered species, and the information gathered is enlightening scientists and conservationists to learn more about the health of Canada’s ecosystems. Apart from scientific significance, BioBlitz is also significant in educational and recreational terms. It is that feeling of being together between a human and the environment they inhabit. They learn more about their own world and discover species they had never learnt about before. They discover more valuable the richness of life in their own cultures. Teachers and families learn the activity as an inspirational, hands-on learning activity, a link of technology, biology, and environmentalism. Above all, BioBlitz makes Canadians pay attention to areas that otherwise would be ignored. A backyard path, schoolyard, or balcony garden is a landscape of scientific exploration. The activity thereby advances the message that conservation starts at home and that everyone has something to offer towards nature conservation.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada, the hosting organisation, dedicates itself to promoting citizen science and environmental stewardship through programs such as the BioBlitz. The program aligns with establishing long-term conservation engagement as well as allowing the general public access to tools and portals for the greater good of advancing national and international biodiversity efforts.
Once again, the Nature Conservancy of Canada invites Canadians to venture outdoors and document their discoveries during the 2025 BioBlitz.
Every sighting is part of the exploration of the variety of nature and helps to achieve Canada’s ambitious objective of the conservation of natural heritage. From birding in your backyard, seeing wildflowers along a trail, or charting frog movement along a wetland, you are an integral participant in a larger process of ensuring the environment will be safe for future generations.
