National Volunteer Week is April 17-23 and the Vermont Atlas of Life honors the work of all the volunteers that have helped us monitor biodiversity. Across the Green Mountain State more than 20,000 people have helped us document, monitor and celebrate Vermont’s natural heritage. Without their incredible dedication and passion, VAL would not be possible.
Data sharing has become an important issue in modern biodiversity research to address large scale questions and conserve species. The Vermont Atlas of Life has been an official Global Biodiversity Information Infrastructure (GBIF) biodiversity data publisher since 2018. GBIF is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. The GBIF network includes hundreds of institutions that publish biodiversity data, like the Vermont Atlas of Life. There are nearly 7.6 million species occurrence records at GBIF now. Volunteers on VAL projects have contributed over 98% of those records.
Thank you to all of you that have helped the Vermont Atlas of Life. We look forward to many more discoveries and celebrations with you!
