Today t he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing that the air quality in the Oakridge-Westfir communities of southern Oregon now meets the fine particulate National Ambient Air Quality Standard under the Clean Air Act .
Eugene and Springfield are among 145 cities worldwide participating in what’s called the City Nature Challenge. It starts Friday, April 30th.
A wild Iris in a local Eugene park. Participants in City Nature Challenge can share photos of plants and animals in their urban environment.
Credit Rachael McDonald
If you’ve got a smartphone or tablet, you can participate in the challenge, an effort to map urban wildlife over a four day period.
Elizabeth Goward, volunteer programs manager with McKenzie River Trust, said, using the free I-naturalist app, you can photograph wildlife in the urban environment. “Anything from plants to birds to bugs, worms, really most science is happening in more remote areas and generally in the context of academia,” Goward said. “So, what this project really aims to do is to document as much biodiversity as possible.”