Bolsa Chica app blends nature and technology
A new mobile app will give Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve visitors an interactive experience with the wetlands at the touch of their fingertips.
“We need this desperately as we see the millennial populations detaching from our natural areas” and relying more on technology, said Kim Kolpin, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, one of three nonprofits associated with the wetlands, which sees more than 40,000 visitors a year.
Bolsa Chica Pro, launched for iPhone users Friday, allows them to tap into the area’s 10,000-year history, identify more than 100 animals and plants, go on a self-guided tour and listen to more than a dozen bird calls.
The app, which took BuzzGalaxy Corp. a year to develop and is available for free in the Apple app store, can be used while walking around the wetlands. Because it can track a guest’s location, it can identify and explain a particular area.
“It’s an education tool that will be able to be used by all the visitors,” said Bill Blair, director of external affairs for the California Resources Corp., an oil and gas company that funded the app. “For a first-time visitor to be able to walk up and wonder how they find out what’s going on here, they can download the app and it’s right in their palm and will tell them everything they want to know.”
Grace Adams, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, said that after oil was discovered in the area in the 1920s, the wetlands and oil companies developed a cooperative relationship. Oil field operations are performed behind the wetlands.
For fitness enthusiasts, the app has built-in calorie and step counters, Blair said.
The app can also be used away from the reserve, so people can always tap into its features no matter where they are.
Kolpin said this will be particularly helpful to people who, because of age, illness or other reasons, can’t leave home.
“Many times, people will send us money and say they can’t come down to physically help because they’re 80-something years old and their legs don’t work anymore,” she said. “We can now bring Bolsa Chica into their homes because it also works beyond these borders.”
Jerry Donahue, president of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, another wetlands group, said the app can only enhance visitors’ enjoyment of the area, including its serenity.
“When we talk to our guests on the public tours of the wetlands, many tell a similar story of their hectic, stressed lives,” he said. “Once guests park their cars and get out, they are amazed at what the landscape looks like going 1 mile per hour.”
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Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey
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