Visitors to Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County can now contribute to its conservation efforts through iNaturalist, a citizen science mobile app.
Jenna Conner, a park ranger at Raystown Lake, said users can take pictures of any sort of wildlife, like mushrooms, plants, insects or birds, and then the app will come up with suggestions of what you’re looking at.
"It's a citizen scientist app," Conner said. “I like to think of it as like an adult scavenger hunt."
After submitting your find, Conner said other iNaturalist users can verify or dispute the data. Research grade data has to have a photo or an audio clip and have verification from two people.
Conner said this data will help guide their conservation efforts, including managing invasive species.
Shannon Wray, a natural resource specialist at Raystown Lake, said they discovered harmful zebra mussels in the lake last summer.
“We found them by a person who was actually boating out near the Brumbaugh Cove," Wray said. "And we found the picture on Facebook. But if we had iNaturalist at the time, we likely would have found that a lot sooner.”
iNaturalist is a national nonprofit that formed in 2023. The Raystown Wildlife Watch started in late April.
Hanah Thatcher, secretary for the Friends of Raystown Lake and an employee of the Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau, said she came up with the idea for the initiative after attending a convention in Las Vegas.
"The Smoky Mountains has a similar program," Thatcher said. "It's called 'Smokies Most Wanted.' Theirs is a lot more ambitious. They want to document every single living organism in the park."
Thatcher said she wanted to promote environmental education while also providing data to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and other related agencies.
