Want to help?
Maryland Biodiversity Project will only reach its full potential with support from the many exceptional naturalists and nature-lovers in our area. Here's how you can help.
Learn
Explore the site, learn more about Maryland nature, and help celebrate and protect Maryland's living things.
Share
Tell friends, family, students, colleagues, and local nature groups about MBP. The more people involved, the more good the project can do.
Contribute
Submit iNaturalist observations, collect field records, help mine data, or review checklists and identifications.
Donate
Maryland Biodiversity Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit and uses donations to fund professional web hosting, support outreach efforts, provide logistics for major BioBlitz events, and more. If you don't want to use PayPal, feel free to contact us directly. Thank you!
Tell people about the project
These links are the easiest places to send someone who wants to learn more or follow along.
Be involved on MBP social media
We want to help build an enthusiastic general nature study community. Please like, comment, and share regularly on Facebook and Instagram to get more people involved. There are a lot of people excited about learning new types of plants, animals, and fungi. Positive feedback and words of encouragement will go a long way.
Collect data
While you're out in the field, photograph what you see and help us gather records. The best way to contribute is to submit observations to iNaturalist. All photos submitted for Maryland are automatically added to the MBP project and queued for review and possible ingest into MBP.
Even a cellphone photo of a moth under your porchlight or a weed in your yard can add a new county record to the project. If you're feeling extra motivated, use the county record views to see where we need the most help. Which county needs the most easy tree records? Moths? Freshwater fish? See the FAQ for what kinds of photos we want and ways to help when submitting photos.
Mine data
Are you sick like us? Do you consider working with nature data in Excel to be a form of recreation? If so, please get in touch about helping us mine useful papers for species lists and Maryland records. If interested, we will provide papers from the top of our wish-list, as well as templates to fill in that will allow us to ingest the data. This item requires attention to detail and a basic understanding of spreadsheets. Serious interest only, please. It takes time to get someone up to speed, so if you are only looking to spend an hour or two, it isn't worth the investment in on-the-job training!
Quality control
Are you an expert on planthoppers? Ferns? Please review our checklists and photos. If something is mis-labeled, if the taxonomy has changed, if anything is out of order, please let us know! If data integrity interests you, let us know if you would be willing to spot-check data mined papers before we ingest it.
Support local and regional conservation efforts
Consider donating to American Bird Conservancy, the Maryland/DC Important Bird Area (IBA) program, Bat Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, or any of the many excellent groups working in our area. Consider being more actively involved with local issues and attending a public hearing. Our collective top priority has to be ensuring all of the species cataloged on this site are still here for generations to come.