Brussels (The Brussels Morning newspaper): In Brussels, the FloraBru project invites residents to adopt 1 km plots for plant monitoring, with 100 of 188 plots already taken. Volunteers will map plant diversity until 2027, comparing findings to a 2006 atlas.
People in Brussels who know a bit about plants or want to learn can sign up for the census. You can adopt a plot of land that’s 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer. In that area, you will take care of the plant list. The project is called FloraBru. Currently, 100 out of 188 plots have been taken by people. We’re glad that many folks are excited about this project. We really need the help of our many volunteers.
How can residents participate in FloraBru project?
Identifying all the plants in a 1 square kilometer area sounds like a big task. But we don’t expect people to do that literally. We just ask them to check Google Maps carefully to find the most interesting spots in their plot. It could be in the woods, on grassland, or near water. People will plan a route of about 2 kilometers where they will look at all the plants. They can follow their route online on the website waarnemingen.be. In 20 years, we can compare how the plants along that same route are doing in 2046.
This is the second time Natuurpunt Brussel has put together a plant atlas. “We made an atlas in 2006, and we’ve seen that there are many new plants in Brussels,” Steeman said. “A bunch of fancy plants from pretty gardens are popping up. All of a sudden, we spot these plants in nature, close to those fancy gardens. We’re excited to see what’s different since 2006.” Natuurpunt not only wants to see how Brussels has changed compared to 20 years ago but also compared to other cities. They want to know how diverse Brussels is when compared to other big cities. Volunteers have time until 2027 to check the plants in their area.
