Continuing the discussion from Help! Too Many Cacti!:
Five days to go and La Paz has already “kicked-off”! 
Already the same specimen of Oreocereus pseudofossulatus has been posted many times. These kids must go around in packs!
Perhaps this time I’ll opt out of IDing for the city.
Yep, we shall be the victims of our own success, I’m afraid. Over 450 cities participating this year (I think there were 160 last year? but I could easily be wrong). At least maybe this year, the La Paz organizers might have recruited more identifiers? But that is a difficult task, unfortunately.
Ah, the Gerald of the cacti is back. Maybe we should nickname it Geraldo, El Cacto
They do go round in packs. In some observations you see the other kids taking photos at the same time, then find their observation of the same thing from a slightly different angle.
I wish someone would explain what a pelargonium is to them. And roses actually. And (insert common garden plant here). They have amazing imagination when coming up with IDs for their cultivated plants.
At least they are out and looking. Having worked with youth in the past it can be hard to motivate them to go outside and enjoy nature.
And that is the mission of iNaturalist. So, hooray.
You should see where they land on the (world) map. Somehow beyond them to find their school / town / country / continent. I scoop up the ones that land in Darkest Africa.
My heart has sunk a little looking at La Paz this morning. On top of the usual pelargoniums IDed as nasturtiums, hollyhocks and others, today there is:
A persicaria IDed as a Chinese Elm.
An acacia IDed as a Scots pine.
A pansy IDed as an osteospermum.
A heartleaf iceplant IDed as a salvia.
A salvia IDed as a foxglove.
And that is only on the first page.
Man i just looked and woof, that is a whole lot of garden plants.
I’ll try to help out some later
Thank you!
Last year they managed 137,000 observations over the CNC weekend, of which 43,000 were casual (not just garden plants, also domestic animals). I hope they don’t beat their record this year!
I’m super unfamiliar with the plants in the area so i wont trust myswelf to get past family or genus most of the time, but i figure any bit will help
What’s the name for this project? I failed to find it.
This is last year’s CNC:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/reto-ciudad-naturaleza-2022-la-paz-cnc
But there doesn’t seem to be one yet for 2023. Maybe they aren’t participating after all?
This is the link I’ve been using for keeping an eye on new La Paz observations, and which I was referring to above:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?per_page=100&place_id=131419
PS: Found it:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/reto-ciudad-naturaleza-2023-la-paz-cnc
Thank you! I’ll check it out.
Nothing there yet as CNC doesn’t officially kick-off until Saturday but the guys in La Paz are already practicing!
I’ve found part of the practice:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bio-blitz-u-e-san-ignacio-2023
It is a school-based Bioblitz, running until Friday, where the observations are restricted to the school grounds. It explains why there are so many observations of the same (cultivated) plants. There are only so many plants in the school garden! I don’t know if the more natural looking section to the west of the buildings is off-limits to the kids, but there are no observations there. It might be very steep ground.
Good find, explains the early appearance of those observations.
From Google street view the western area looks very steep, almost a cliff.
That’s great there’s a practice project. I hope the teachers are taking advantage of it to teach the students what a cultivated plant is, how to add initial IDs, and so on.
No evidence of that so far!
I have pity for the identifiers in that region and I wonder what the CNC organizers can do to relieve some of the burden on iNaturalist identifiers globally. This year, I am a co-organizer for the first time, so I know the CNC staff are emphasizing to the organizers that observations should concentrate on wild species and add an initial ID, but I’m wondering what else we organizers can do. Personally, I intend to do everything I can to inform the observers and to work on IDs myself (we have three ID workshops planned for the Tuesday after the CNC), but I’m not worried about my area, as there are many dedicated identifiers there already. But I am concerned about elsewhere. Anyone have any suggestions?