Yeah, I’ve had a pretty good success rate reaching out to users in places where I plan on traveling, although that could be confounded by the fact that I’m an iNat staff and am more likely to get a response. But most people are on iNat because they want to share nature with others, so they’re usually pretty nice.
Two things that can’t hurt:
- be a regular iNat user so that you’re more known among the community.
- make sure you’re clear that you’re not looking to poach anything, as this is a touchy subject and a lot of people are distrustful of strangers online.