Chasing Achievements

On the subject of Bruce Trail badges, a few of the other clubs have also started offering naturalist-themed badges, and I've already taken advantage of two of them. The Toronto club's "biodiversity naturalist" badge requires a certain number of observations from various categories (birds, trees, wildflowers, mushrooms, etc.) found within the Toronto section of trail. I spent some time in and around Hilton Falls Conservation Area this spring and managed to check off that list without too much trouble; it was a really good spring for wildflowers and other plants. The Caledon club's "citizen scientist" badge, in comparison, requires 100 different species reported to the BTC's iNaturalist project but they can be anything from anywhere along the entire trail, not just the Caledon club section. So between the stuff from Toronto for the other badge, a bunch of older observations that I logged during past hikes, and some extra photos taken during field work down in Burlington this year, I managed to get that one too.

The Peninsula section also has some really great bird, fern, and orchid badges that I covet, but that section's far enough away that I haven't managed to go for them yet.

On the subject of iNaturalist, though, let me take the opportunity to evangelize for them yet again. It's such a great platform and resource for identifying and tracking species, do recommend if you haven't already got it and you spend any time outdoors. I love looking at projects like the BTC's, where they've collected so many observations from people on the trail that you can call up the map and see exactly where the trail is based on where all of the little dots are - an entire trail system marked out based on what people have seen and photographed as they passed by. Harnessing the power of people's curiousity to collect invaluable information on the world around us. Encouraging people to slow down, take a look, and appreciate the vast variety of life around them. What are you waiting for?