New tools for an old trade
I am in the midst of a year focused on the future of natural history; I have been running workshops on this topic, connecting with naturalists from around the planet, and I have been working for the past few years to form an NGO dedicated to preserving the art and craft of natural history (naturalhistorynetwork.org). Natural History is a broad stream with many channels leading into that water - they come from art, from the humanities, from the sciences, and they all share a focused attention to the more-than-human world. In the past year of building this organization, establishing a journal (the journal of natural history education and experience - http://www.jnhe.org/), and documenting converations about the future of natural history (From Decline to Rebirth: the Natural History Initiative - declinetorebirth.org), I have run into a lot of inspiring people, and watched a wide range of ideas take shape, and I have to say that this site - INaturalist - could be among the coolest things I have bumped into in the past year. Among many practicing naturalists, there is a profound sense that the field is declining, and by many metrics, these people are absolutely correct. At the same time, there are truly exciting opportunities for naturalists that would be unheard of even 20 years ago, let along 200 years in the past, and this site, with its capacity to bring a huge number of people into the process of observing nature, is a big step in the right direction. Perhaps one of the most powerful tools available to the 21st century naturalist is the power to draw on each other, to understand things collectively.
