Maroondah has an abundance of local biodiversity - indigenous plants, animals and fungi - that can be found in your garden, your street, local bushland and creek reserves, or any of the over 400 parks and open spaces across Maroondah.
Our local biodiversity is a reflection of the diversity, quality and connectedness of the natural habitats found in Maroondah, so the more we can reveal and record our local biodiversity the better informed we are to protect and improve the habitats that support it. We are inviting everyone - from entomologists to children, nature enthusiasts to novices - to become a ‘citizen scientist’ by seeking out the biodiversity they can find in their local area and using the iNaturalist platform to record their observations.
Every observation of nature that you record within Maroondah using iNaturalist will appear in the iNaturalist project “Nature in Maroondah”. Take a look at what observations have been made to date - you might be surprised by what has been observed in Maroondah!
Maroondah has also participated in a number of citizen science initiatives including the City Nature Challenge and the Great Southern Bioblitz that encourage people to discover the nature near where they live and record their observations during a four day period.
City Nature Challenge 2023 (28 April to 1 May)
The City Nature Challenge is an annual global event run by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences that started in 2016.
Having first participated in 2021, and again in 2022, Maroondah is participating again in the 2023 City Nature Challenge
In 2022, Maroondah joined forces with 20 other metropolitan Melbourne Councils to represent Greater Melbourne and competed against 445 cities from around the world in the annual City Nature Challenge.
In 2023 the “Greater Melbourne” collaboration now involves 27 Councils and 9 other organisations.
During the four-day observation period, residents are invited to find, photograph and record (using iNaturalist) the native plants, animals and fungi that live and grow in our neighbourhoods. Working together to find and document nature in our area helps scientists and land managers study and protect these species and the habitats they rely on. See the 2021 and 2022 City Nature Challenge results below.
Interested in hearing about future activities?
If you are interested in being informed of any similar activities being planned, please register your interest below:
Click here to view form.