WILLIAMS — Members of the public are invited to attend a training hosted by the Kaibab National Forest and Arizona Game and Fish Department on an exciting phone application that allows citizen scientists to assist land managers in locating noxious weeds.

The free workshop is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon on Nov. 5 at the Williams Ranger District office of the Kaibab National Forest, 742 S. Clover Rd. in Williams. Jami Clark, a data specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department out of Phoenix, will lead the informational and training session on the use of iMapInvasives and iNaturalist for reporting noxious and invasive weeds on lands within Arizona.

iMapInvasives is an online data management tool that stores invasive species information and facilitates data sharing and utilization by land managers, the public and other organizations. Within the past decade, iMapInvasives has become a vital decision-making tool for several states, organizations and agencies in the battle against some of the most threatening invasive species infestations.

At its most basic level, this database supports data management of simple species location information. In addition, it supports advanced information management including the capability to input treatment records, survey records, track infestations over time, create collaborative projects, and even track hours and volunteer efforts spent on projects. This tool has provided a standardized, central location in which to store invasive species information and has aided in data sharing across local and state boundaries on both regional and national scales.

iMapInvasives has two major user groups: (1) citizen scientists collecting point observation data while in the field, (2) land managers tracking the status of infestations over time. In order to support the first group and provide a user-friendly, offline-capable phone app, iMapInvasives Arizona has established a project in the online platform iNaturalist.org.

To contribute data by using a phone app, follow these steps:

1. Request an account from iMapInvasives.
2. Once you hear back from Jami Clark with your account information, set up an account with iNaturalist. Try to make your iNaturalist username identical to or as similar as possible to your iMapInvasives username.
3. Logon to iNaturalist and join the Arizona iMapInvasives Project.
4. Prepare your phone to start collecting and contributing data by downloading the iNaturalist app from either the iTunes Store or Google Play.