About ChargeNaturalist
A community guide that re-uses two great public datasets — the OpenStreetMap registry of EV charging stations and iNaturalist's research-grade observation feed — to answer one question we couldn't find a good answer to elsewhere:
While I'm charging here for 30 minutes, is there anything in walking distance worth looking at?
How the Nature Score works
When you click a charger, ChargeNaturalist queries the iNaturalist API for research-grade observations within 500 m (roughly a 6-minute walk) and computes two numbers:
- Density — total research-grade observations within the walking radius.
- Diversity — number of distinct species recorded within the walking radius.
Both are log-scaled (since a hotspot with 1,000 observations isn't 10× more interesting than one with 100 — diminishing returns set in) and averaged into a 0–100 score. The score is broken down by iconic taxon using iNaturalist's own color scheme — so the four sub-bars on the panel mirror what you see when you visit iNat's map view directly.
Reading the colored dots
The colored dots on the main map use iNaturalist's own taxon scheme:
- Plants — usually concentrated in parks, riverbanks, prairie strips, and unmown shoulders.
- Insects & other invertebrates — often clustered around lit convenience stores, gas stations, and other lights that attract moths and beetles at night.
- Vertebrates — birds, herps, mammals, fish. Concentrated in wooded areas, near water, and at well-known birding spots.
- Fungi — damp, shaded ground; underrepresented overall but tells you something specific when present.
How to contribute
The best way to make the guide better is to make your own observations while charging. Once they're posted to iNaturalist as research-grade, they'll appear in everyone's view of that station automatically — no separate submission to us required.
Bug reports, feature ideas, missing stations, and general feedback are welcome through the Contact form (the "Contact" link in the top-right of the header). Messages go to Zach.
Support the project
ChargeNaturalist is free and ad-free. If it's saved you a boring 30 minutes at a charger, consider chipping in to keep it running:
Donations cover hosting, the OpenRouteService API for the route planner, and any future paid data sources.
Limitations and honest caveats
- Nature Score is a snapshot — it reflects accumulated past observations, not what's blooming or migrating today. Use it as a "this place is generally interesting" indicator, not a real-time alert.
- Some species' locations are intentionally obscured by iNaturalist for conservation reasons. Those observations still count in the score but their dots on the hotspot map may be jittered up to ~20 km.
- Charger data is community-maintained (OpenStreetMap by default) — a station's plug count, operator, or even existence may be out of date. Cross-reference your car's native trip planner before relying on it.
- Walking distance is straight-line 500 m. A river, freeway, or fence may make the actual route longer or impossible.
Your privacy
ChargeNaturalist has no accounts and no cookies. For usage stats it uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is cookieless and privacy-first — aggregate page views and referrers only, with no cross-site tracking and no personal profile of you. Nothing else about you is stored on a server; the only saved setting is your distance units (metric or imperial), kept locally in your own browser. To draw the map it queries OpenStreetMap, iNaturalist, and a geocoder for the area you're viewing, so those providers see the map region you look at (as with any map app). "Locate me" uses your device's location in your browser to center the map and isn't sent to us.
Credits
- Charging stations: OpenStreetMap (default, ODbL) via the public Overpass API. Optionally OpenChargeMap (richer metadata, requires a free API key).
- Amenities (food / restrooms / convenience): OpenStreetMap, same Overpass mirrors.
- Routing: OpenRouteService (free tier with API key).
- Observations: iNaturalist — license varies per observer; we link back to each observation.
- Basemap (satellite): Esri World Imagery, used under their public access program (attribution required).
- Basemap (streets): © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
- Basemap (topo): USGS Topo, public domain (US only).
- Geocoder: Photon (Komoot) for autocomplete, Nominatim (OSM) for full search.
- Map library: Leaflet + Leaflet.markercluster.