hey ok so. I like oak trees. That’s kind of like the topic I like the most. of anything. I’m planning to go to Texas in October to photograph the many oaks that are either endemic (within the U.S at least) or most prominent in Texas. Several of the oaks I want to see and photograph are like, critically endangered. Q. Hinckleyi Q. Robusta actually I think that’s it. I’m most hung up on the Hinckley oak. would it be ok to go to Big bend ranch state park with the intent purpose of looking for Q. Hinckleyi, a critically endangered tree. also Q. robusta there’s like this spot off the side of a road that people have seen it I’d like to go there. Is this allowed. I guess i’ve already done this by visiting a site with Q. Boyntonii to photograph those. I also plan on hiking mount Livermore to see Q. depressipes which I don’t think is actually threatened but its rare. Idk I don’t want to do something I shouldn’t and risk hurting the oak trees.
I think that should be good provided you don’t harm the species and obscure the observation…
I believe Q. Hinckleyi is automatically obscured. I will also obscure Q. Robusta since that is not automatically obscured
I think it’s fine as long as you are following any rules of the location. Photographing roadside trees from the roadside is ethical, entering private property to get closer without permission is not. Hiking a park trail because there are rare trees along it is ethical, ignoring “please stay on trail” signs is not, and may contribute to soil compaction that ultimately kills some of the more impressive specimens that too many people want to get close to.
theres very little spots where a lot of oaks are reported in big bend ranch state park I’m pretty sure theres only one trail thats reported to have a noticeable amount of non q. Grisea species like Q. Pungens and probably q. hinckelyi just based on the location of where the trail is in el solotario. that was just one guy (I think a researcher based on the description notes?) reporting stuff there so it seems kind of weird to go to this trail or road or something that i can’t find much information on to also photograph oaks that one person saw there. I think i’ll just go to some trail in el solotario and look around. I’m not sure how prominent anything is i’m just gonna hope how scattered the general oak populations from the observations on inatrualist is due to a lack of data and not like thats the only trail where they are
I don’t think there’s anything unethical about going to the same trail. But if you can observe them on a different trail, where they haven’t previously been reported, it would add more information about their distribution within the park, which would be great!
A lot of the ethics has to do with identifying why a threatened tree is threatened, and reflecting on whether your actions will be positive, neutral, or negative through that lens. For example, for trees that threatened by contagious disease that is wiping them out, traveling between sites could track fungal spores on your shoes/tires/equipment - in that case visiting isolated disease-free trees could be harmful unless biosecurity measures are taken to avoid infecting them. For trees that just have naturally restricted ranges and are threatened by habitat loss, visiting them could have a neutral or even positive effect by bringing more attention to their plight.
One thing to keep in mind about particular famous trees is that over time, people walking around the trunk could compact the soil around the tree and harm/kill it, but that would mostly be a concern for famous individual trees rather than random trees where there won’t be lots of other people also visiting. Just be aware of soil compaction as a risk, and avoid walking around close to famous specimens that get heavy visitor traffic, and respect any boundaries that are put in place around particular trees.
i don’t see an issue if you aren’t harming anything to get to it.
there’s an endangered spider in the southern Appalachians, it lives in/under moss mats in high-elevation forests. if you were to go looking for it, you’d essentially have to disturb these moss mats in order to find one. that’s a no-go.
if you wanted to sit on the trail near some moss and keep your fingers crossed you might notice a wandering spider, well, go for it i guess!
I wrote a huge diatribe about ethics. /trash
Just be sure you disinfect your boots between locations, and watch out for squatch and hogs.
nvm mount livermore closed always and im stupid so q. depirssipes shoudlnt be a problem. no depressed oak :(