This is an invitation to submit to a project, Footzoom https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/footzoom, that was initiated December 22, 2019 to encourage people to observe what is around them while using human-powered transport to arrive at that observation. This project is not limited to the topic locations. Today, recognized by many as Earth Day, finds many of us, depending on where we are, unfortunately with limits as to how far from ones principal residence one may venture. Observations are invited from your observation history going back, from today, and from the future. The terms are simple - Use only human-powered transport from ones’s primary residence to get to the observation. This is explained further on the project page but “backyard” observations are encouraged and welcomed. By all means feel free to obscure your location. It will be interesting to see the total amount of species that are submitted with this, hopefully, low carbon footprint observation technique.
Unfortunately this is a traditional project so submissions need to be made manually (at least from what I can tell).
This project was made for me. I have a tiny shade garden by my front steps; a full-sun patio garden; a shared cultivated “wilderness” with oaks, azaleas, and other plants: home to fearsome squirrels and sweet-natured spiders. Also at the end of my condo complex not far from the dumpsters there is basketball court with a infrequently mowed area/flood plain. It is home to crickets and, alas, way too much poison ivy. Within walking distance the opposite direction is the elementary school butterfly garden and a few blocks beyond that a local tiny park another flood plain.
But what if you have multiple houses? Can observations be considered as “nearby” when you live there? And for how exactly long? And if you travel to a place but then you live there for a month or more, do you still consider it transport-supported? I know, weird questions.
This is a thoughtful question. I think the terms are open to self reflection and interpretation with the thought of reduced carbon foot print in mind. I know that everyone lives in different situations and that a point of view can be blinded by what we don’t know or understand.
Students may have different primary residences depending on time of year and necessity. I would accept their rational if they felt it was so.
Some live in a vehicle out of necessity, so I think they can still have observations but need to reflect on when they were footzooming and when they were not. And, when they are moving out of necessity or just traveling.
Personally we “lived” in Kuala Lumpur for 3 months while we toured the area. I am not counting my observations from that time period. I was not there out of necessity.
I live on an island where the only practical way to the mainland is by ferry or air travel, I will not count observations there until I can figure out how to sail there with a bicycle on board. We have ridden our bicycles across Canada so I know observations in this project can be far reaching.
I traveled in a trailer for three months on the mainland and I will not count that time period - my movement was a choice.
It’s cool! I better leave only those at my first home when I was premanently lived there and house where I live now, datcha is complicated, sometimes you come up to 2 days and sometimes for 3 times, as do expeditions, you live there for a reason but that’s not what you call “primary residence”.
Do observations from or in home count too?
e.g. of what’s exactly in the house (I guess maybe those shouldn’t be? though obviously no transport involved) or those of organisms being outside that you make while being inside.
I understand now. Something like a spider, earwig, bat, rodent, black mould on a window frame. Organisms that have unfortunately decided to share your abode, yes they count. A recording of a hidden Gecko chirping, yes. A wild bird that has accidentally flown inside, yes. A tick that I have found on myself, sigh, yes.
I debated whether to include my Colorado observations. I was a lifelong Californian, but decided to move to Colorado. I sold my house in March, hired a moving van, and went with the idea that it was a permanent move. As time went on, I really missed California, so in October of the same year I hired a moving van again and bought a different house in California in my old neighborhood. I figured that the real estate transactions and moving expenses and not having more than one residence at the same time made it okay to include the Colorado observations. I didn’t include any observations from Colorado that I didn’t walk to from the place I was renting. Since the discussion has been opened, I just wanted to put the facts out there, and I’d have no problem removing those observations if they seem outside the scope of the project.
I think this project is a great idea! Obviously circumstances are weird right now for all of us, but I think I’ll be challenging myself to get more foot-powered observations - I added some of my historical ones.
I just want to thank people for joining the Footzoom Project. It is great to see that people have joined from all over the world including Portugal, Spain, Russia, Germany, the UK, Canada, and the US. This is a traditional project so it is heavily reliant on people joining and adding their observations that have been collected while using only human-powered transport from one’s primary residence to get to the observation. As I said earlier, it will be great to see how many species are submitted with this, hopefully, low carbon footprint. I would love to see the southern hemisphere, more continents, and more islands, represented. I would also like some feedback on how to promote this. So far there seems to be a good cross section of species as well as you can see in the stat diagram.
I don’t know about promotion, but what about banner or at least an icon of the project? That’s what people see on others’ observations and it gets them interested to visit the page.
