A group of us in Florence, Oregon, have adopted a trail. We would like to have a central location on iNaturalist where we can view observations along the trail. I thought a Collection Project would be the best way to do this, but it appears I need to create a new “Place” to do that…is that correct?
If I need to create a Place, is there anything I should know before doing that?
Also, is there a way to create a Place that has a boundary that is an actual outline of the area vs. just a rectangle or an oval? A rectangle adds areas that are outside of the boundaries of the trail (which is not a big issue for our needs, but if I can make it more precise, I would like to do that if I’m creating a Place).
Finally, at some point, the trail may be expanded. If that happens, can we update the “place” and have it update the collection project automatically?
If there is a better way to do this than a collection project, I’m open to learning Thank you.
There is a help page for creating places which helped me when I created one for a local woodland myself. I went the route of creating a .kml file with the place boundary (in QGIS, but GoogleEarth or similar programs should work as well).
As for the project type I would refer to this help page and as I understand your use case, a collection project should be fine.
if the core ‘theme’/filter of your project is that specific trail, then yes, you will need to create a place first (assuming you and your members are not exclusively adding obs to iNat from that trail only, which I assume is unlikely)
it’s good just to double check first that a place doesn’t already exist in iNat for your trail. It probably doesn’t, but avoiding duplication is good.
yes, it’s easy to create a KML with precise boundaries. Can be done very easily (and for free) using numerous tools/softwares, including GIS and Google Earth among many.
Thank you.