Tampere’s crowdsourced invasive species control campaign begins on May 18. Invasive species are plants and animals that spread to new areas with human assistance and tend to outcompete native species. The City of Tampere is participating in the crowdsourced campaign for the fourth time.
During this growing season, the species targeted for removal is Himalayan balsam. Thriving in damp, fertile environments, Himalayan balsam can grow as tall as three meters. Because each plant can scatter thousands of seeds through explosive dispersal, timely removal is essential. To stop the spread, the plants must be cleared before their seed pods have a chance to mature.
For the first time in Tampere, Spanish slugs are being eradicated; they occur in large numbers in some areas and, in large quantities, cause significant damage to nature and gardens and can also spread diseases.
– Crowdsorsa’s invasive species game offers citizens a practical way to help the local environment and get rewarded for it. We’ve had great experiences with crowdsourcing; last year, we had as many as 314 participants. Hopefully, there will be even more participants this year, says Tiina Leinonen, Climate and Environment Manager in the City of Tampere.
Participants search for Himalayan balsam within the app’s game area. In early summer and the beginning of the growing season, it is important to identify plants by their leaves, as the colorful flowers only bloom later on.
When participants spot invasive plants, they film the area while walking around it. After removing all invasives within, they walk around the same site again and film the results of their work. Once an area has been cleared it is marked with a red plant icon to signal the area being clear.
An area that has already been cleared once can be repelled again as soon as the red plant icon marking the sighting on the game map changes to green. This happens approximately two weeks after the first removal.
The videos are uploaded within three days (72 h) to Crowdsorsa’s quality control team for review. Approved submissions are rewarded, and the payment can be requested through the app directly to the player’s bank account.
– Last year in Finland, we removed more than 2.8 million square meters of invasive plant species and eradicated over 600 liters of Spanish slugs. I believe we can set a new record again this summer, says Toni Paju, CEO of Crowdsorsa.
In the slug task, participants collect and terminate the Spanish slugs they find. Participants record a video in which a sealed, airtight one-liter container is filled with collected, dead slugs and then deposited, sealed, in any city-owned mixed waste container.
For each liter of slugs collected, participants earn four euros in early summer. This is intended to encourage slug collection before the breeding season, when control is most effective. By late summer, the reward decreases to two euros.
Since animals should not be subjected to unnecessary suffering, Spanish slugs should be eliminated as quickly as possible. The instructions and recommendations provided in the app should be followed carefully.
This summer, a total of 5240 euros in rewards will be available to participants in Tampere. In an invasive plant mission it’s possible to earn up to 20 euros per hour. The reward amount is determined automatically based on the size, density and species of the sighting.
The city's slug mission begins on May 18 at 10:00 AM, and plant repelling starts in July, depending on how the growing season progresses. The tasks remain active until the end of September or as long as the local reward budget lasts, and participants can track the progress of the removal efforts directly in the app.
