Launching of the Oregon iMapInvasives Collector project
Hello intrepid iNaturalists!
This is Lindsey Wise, admin for the Oregon iMapInvasives program. iMapInvasives is the hub for invasive species data in Oregon, and I have long relied on iNaturalist as an important source of those sightings. I've been running an iNat project for Oregon invasives for several years, but with a traditional project it is just unfeasible to manually add the THOUSANDS of sightings you all are reporting!
With the new option of Collector projects, I can ask iNaturalist to automatically pull those invasive species reports into this project, where I can more easily find your reports that Oregon's resource managers and researchers need to help them understand and respond to invasive species.
While I manually add the several hundred taxa that Oregon iMapInvasives tracks to the Collector, there will be a transition period where both projects are up and running. And I do want to test out how these Collector projects differ between the traditional one. But for now, the plan is to steadily build up this Collector project and transition away from the traditional one.
Thank you for your sightings and your participation in this great iNaturalist community!
-Lindsey
Comentarios
I'm not familiar with the details of this project type and the pros and cons, but I really appreciate that you are taking the initiative to find pathways to get the appropriate valuable iNaturalist data into the iMapInvasive Oregon project database. Hopefully, this project type will make that task easier for you to manage. Please also let us all know how to best support this. In my view, we can all help by submitting detailed reports (of course) and also by verifying or improving identifications and also by flagging observations that are actually of cultivated species. Anything else?
Thank you! -Jeff
Thanks Jeff! I'm still learning the details of the project differences as well. You are correct that flagging cultivated species and adding IDs are hugely helpful for reports. It's also good to let us know if you've done any management (like pulling a plant) in the description or a comment, or if you see any potential impacts from the invasive species (such as if there are rare species nearby like pond turtles). These details help managers decide how to prioritize and customize their response.
Thanks!
Lindsey
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