© NPSThe National Park Service and the UCLA Center for Embedded Network Sensing have partnered to design a smartphone application for a unique purpose: to identify the locations of invasive weeds in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The What's Invasive! application can be downloaded onto any iPhone or Android mobile phone. When users see an invasive weed while out on a hike or bike ride, they can take a photo from their phone and map its location. That location is the automatically uploaded to the What's Invasive! website, allowing park staff and the public to see maps of invasive weeds and how they are spreading in the mountains.
Invasive weeds are a significant threat to native plant and animal species in the Santa Monica Mountains. And the National Park Service is hoping this new tool will help identify where weeds need to be removed from parks.
Learn more about the project and the What's Invasive! smartphone application.