I volunteer, weeding on the Natural Heritage Trail (NHT) at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. Along one mile the NHT recreates ~12 native SC ecosystems: Shell Ring, Piedmont Prairie, Longleaf Pine savanna, etc. All plantings are straight-species stock sourced in-state. Many are now self-seeding. Ongoing management is mostly invasive removal, fire, and mowing. Most ecosystems function more like wild remnants than display beds, even though they sit inside a garden boundary.
Why projects?
- Track long-term species presence/absence for staff & volunteers.
- Let visitors contribute observations and learn the region’s flora/fauna.
Gray areas & questions
- Most keystone specimens were planted by humans—does that automatically make them “captive / cultivated,” or may we treat second-generation recruits as wild?
- Have others run similar restoration-type projects? Any best-practice tips on wording project rules or handling the captive flag?
For reference, the ecosystem list is here: https://www.clemson.edu/scbg/visit/natural-heritage-garden.html
1 Like
Sounds great! You should probably make sure you have permission to do such a thing from your local officials and such beforehand, though!
You can treat second-generation recruits as wild for iNaturalist purposes, but I would be careful when you upload photos of planted or second-generation plants to make a note about whether they are wild or not and check the DQA appropriately for each one. You might want to think about how visitors will know which plants were planted, particularly 5 or 10 years from now - maybe a label on each, saying they were planted?
2 Likes
In some places we already have the main trees and shrubs labeled, but in others, like the Piedmont Prairie, I think they planted thousands or tens of thousands of plugs 10 years ago. There’s no way to know anymore what were planted and what self-seeded. But with the exception of a few dozen acres here and there, that’s true of the entire original 13 colonies.
My other concern is that my own observations are off by as much as 7 meters where cell reception is poorest, so the areas will have to be big enough to account for that.
I live in Massachusetts. I wouldn’t say that all but a few acres were planted by humans at some point, although it’s certainly true that there are only a few acres of old-growth forest left. Everything else has been logged and sometimes plowed. I’ve seen an estimate that half of the vegetation in the greater Boston area is non-native (but not necessarily planted).
So if the plantings at your restoration area were that extensive, it will indeed be impossible to tell if something is truly wild in the iNaturalist sense. Nonetheless, I think using iNat to record what’s there, track changes, an educate visitors is a great idea! Just supplement that with a more extensive written record of what was planted where and when, if you know any of those details.
Already in-progress. Thanks!
1 Like
This is kind of a non-answer, but you can set projects to allow casual observations, which would mean it can include technically captive observations
When Moraea aristata was reintroduced on Rondebosch Common - they know exactly where the first clusters of bulbs were planted. And which new plants are evidence of successful restoration.
Obs by Alex Lansdowne whose project it was
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraea_aristata there was an interesting blog post - but that is sadly broken link.
Tiny video clip
1 Like
Technically, iNaturalist only counts self-seeding as wild if it spreads outside the originally planted area.