The Great Southern Bioblitz has come to Cowra, with Mid-Lachlan Landcare leading the charge for citizen science.
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The volunteer group surveyed land a short drive from Cowra, joining thousands of people from Australia, South America, New Zealand and the Pacific over the last weekend of November.
As part of Bioblitz participants survey an area of land in their community, using a mobile app to record findings researchers across the globe can analyse and use to better understand our environment.
MId-Lachlan Landcare coordinator Amanda Foxon-Hill said the day was an opportunity to "play around" with tools including digital microscopes, sound recordings and identifying birds and insects - while contributing to internationally recognised research.
"The property that we were on has grassy box woodland, an endangered ecosystem which occurs naturally in the Cowra area," Ms Foxon-Hill said.
"If you go back long enough pretty much the whole area would have been covered in this grassy box woodland, an area of great biodiversity."
Foxon-Hill described the unique environment woodland areas support, including sugar gliders, flying foxes, flowering gums and native yam.
"We have these pockets of woodlands that are supporting flora and fauna, including the Superb Parrot," Ms Foxon-Hill said.
"For our region, it's really important to protect the landscape."
Associate Head of School (Environmental Science and Management) at Charles Sturt University, Dr John Rafferty, said data samples, no matter how small, can be vital tools for environmental research.
"We're scientists, we like data," he said.
"The more data we have, from more areas, the stronger the modelling, and the accuracy.
"Imagine one small researcher, or a small team of researchers gathering data from birds, and suddenly you can have 100, 200, 1,000 or even 5,000 people contributing to that data. It's just incredible."
Dr Rafferty explained the many ways people can get involved in supporting scientific research, including short training courses that help upskill participants in providing the best quality data. He encouraged anyone interested in participating in a citizen science project to reach out to the Australian Citizen Science Association, where there are about 500 projects running across the country.
"Our understanding of how the world works is incomplete. There's so much more to learn and develop and we're understanding and increasing our knowledge of the complexities of natural systems every day," he said.
"The book hasn't been completed yet, you know, lots of chapters. It's a wonderful thing to be part of that creation of knowledge and understanding."
