The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened the Nature Garden and Nature Lab exhibits on Jun,9th 2013 which are new indoor-outdoor exhibits that focus on local urban nature and community science. The Nature Garden is a 3.5 acre exhibit planted with local plants that will act as a learning garden and habitat for urban wildlife. The Nature Lab is also designed to connect ...more ↓

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened the Nature Garden and Nature Lab exhibits on Jun,9th 2013 which are new indoor-outdoor exhibits that focus on local urban nature and community science. The Nature Garden is a 3.5 acre exhibit planted with local plants that will act as a learning garden and habitat for urban wildlife. The Nature Lab is also designed to connect visitors with local wildlife and encourage community science through interactive displays and stations where people can engage in community science during and following their visit to the museum. Both exhibits will provide interactive lessons and experiences that they can build upon even after they leave the museum.

The primary tool for our visitors to share their nature experience is through what is called the “L.A. Nature Map," which will live both in the Nature Lab and on the NHM website. Local (i.e., Greater LA area) wildlife observations are pulled from www.inaturalist.org and are displayed on the interactive map. Visitors can enter their city, address, zip code, etc. and see which species have been observed near their location of interest within the L.A. area. They are also provided with a tutorial on how to participate in our L.A. Nature Map project.

Right now there are many regions of Los Angeles County that currently lack wildlife observations. We want the map to provide all visitors with a connection to local nature, regardless of where they call home in the L.A. area. Please help us map nature in your local parks and neighborhoods by submitting your observations to our project page.

If you are concerned about sharing sensitive data with the public, you can set your geoprivacy setting from “public” to “obscured.” Geoprivacy is a common concern among observers that iNaturalist takes seriously. In fact, iNaturalist automatically obscures locations for all taxa that are classified as "NEAR THREATENED" or worse according to the IUCN Red List. Please visit the following link for more information about iNaturalist’s geoprivacy settings (http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#geoprivacy).

We hope you will contribute to the world’s knowledge of L.A.’s biodiversity and facilitate connections between L.A. nature and the local community. Thank you for your help and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Best Regards,

Miguel

Miguel Ordeñana

Lead Gallery Interpreter, Field Biology | Education & Exhibits

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007

213-763-3591/mordenan@nhm.org less ↑