Enjoying Outside, Inside - Maps for Identification and Understanding

Amy Boyer • July 27, 2023

Do you wonder what trees you're seeing in a particular area? Want to understand something about the rocks in an area? Curious what animals you might come across? These maps can help you identify what you're seeing, understand patterns, and give you a sense of what you might find in a new area. 


CalFlora What Grows Here: Zoom in to search for plants within the visible area or draw a shape on the map to find plants near a particular feature such as a mountain or lake. You can filter for native plants, rare plants, weeds, and non-natives, or search for trees, grasses, herbs, and the like. Search results include photos, flowering time, and links to species accounts. Zooming well in or filtering is recommended so as not to get overwhelmed—there are a lot of species out there!


eBird hotspots map: Zoom in on a location or enter a hotspot name to see the number of birds observed in that area, then click on View Details for a hotspot to see a species list. (The species list includes observer names so you may see someone you know!) Clicking on a species in the list gets you a description, photos, and statistics. This can also help you decide where to go for your next birding trip!


iNaturalist observations map: Zoom in (way, way in) to an area and see crowdsourced observations. Click on the observation points to see what other people have seen. They're color-coded so you can easily search for animals, plants, fungi, and even protozoans. Or you can search for a species to see where it's been observed. Observations where at least 2 people agree on the identification are considered "research grade" and iNaturalist tracks the number of people agreeing. 


National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB): Click and/or zoom to see all the geologic maps available via web for a given area. Zooming in shows more detailed maps. For California, these include both USGS maps and California's regional geology map series. Click on a map from the list on the left and then on "More info" to get downloadable map PDFs and more. Recent maps have GIS datasets available. Geology maps require a certain amount of nerding out to get the most out of them, but you can see patterns and basic rock types fairly quickly.



-Amy Boyer


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