Welcome to the iNat Forum, @oziebanez!
@DitchingIt and @djscho Do you have any thoughts to share with Olivia?
Sorry no. Iād have loved to be just such an ambassador back in my diving days before iNat was a big thing. If you are connected to somewhere which stays open, such as a hotel or bar or live-aboard, you might try after-dive hackathons, where people can come in with a laptop or phone for a drink/snack and help each other identify, upload and comment on their recent observations. Maybe connect to a leader board type iNat project and compete with each other (e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/marine-fishes-of-the-central-indo-pacific). Get in a visiting diver to speak/coach (ask some core iNat fish IDers if they are planning on coming through any time soon).
Thereās a lot of camaraderie in diving, so I recommend you harness it in real time, and see continual turnover as an opportunity. Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this! I love these ideas. I agree, I think it would be awesome to get more divers involved with submitting iNat observations. We have a local dive shop who is already interested in working with us to develop an iNat program, so we are trying to sort out logistics of how that could work. Thank you again for the ideas and the well-wishes!
Hi everyone! Just reaching out to see if any other Ambassadors from Maryland would like to get in contact and try to plan an small event in the next few months. Iād love to do a mothing/blacklight event or maybe a bioblitz. Iām based in West Baltimore right now, but originally from right outside of Frederick. I have some medical issues that make long hikes and crouching/bending for long periods of time painful and difficult so I need frequent breaks. I donāt have any degrees or anything fancy, Iāve just been a giant nature nerd since I was a kid. I recently took a class on Arthropods, so my focus is primarily there. I went ahead and followed everyone from my area, so feel free to shoot me a message or email if you want to connect :)
New ambasssador from near Atlanta here. Iām also into nature journaling.
Iām in Texas but I would be happy to assist with something online.
Iām located up in Nolensville TN so not too far away from Huntsville!
Hello. Can someone help me- I donāt understand how to use this forum. And I canāt seem to find any how-to guides either. How does this work?
Can you share a bit more detail about what you are looking for on the forum?
You can also take a short tutorial from the Discourse platform, by sending a private message to @disco bot (one word; remove the space) with the message āStart tutorialā
Hi, I am a new iNat Ambassador from Rolleston in Canterbury New Zealand looking to connect with other Ambassadors in my area, including Christchurch, NZ.
Thanks
Any Atlanta area Ambassadors interested in collaborating on a BioBlitz in Chattahoochee Hills on September 26?
Is there a Discord server for the iNaturalist Ambassador program? I didnāt see one, so if one does not exist, maybe someone here could create it.
The following Discord servers do exist:
- An unofficial Discord server for iNaturalist (I didnāt see any section dedicated to the Ambassador program)
- A Discord server for the City Nature Challenge
Hello fellow Ambassadors!
I am hosting my first event in a few weeks as a part of the iNat Together Campaign and have a question about making quality observations.
I will be leading a guided walk through an established loop trail. That means many of the large, established trees on the site may have already had an observation published for them as individuals.
Is it considered an āextraā observation if a tree has already been observed? Another way to put this is, would duplicate observations of the same tree individual interfere with prevalence data or cause issues?
When I lead my guided walk, I want to instruct guests how to make good observations of trees, but should I lead them to check to see if there is already an existing observation before publishing it?
I appreciate any help. I tried to search this particular question in the forum, but didnāt have any luck.
Welcome to the forum, Cari!
It is not a problem to have multiple observations of the same individual. Some prominent trees in certain countries have hundreds of observations of the same tree.
I just learned about arguably the greatest environmental crime in history, when thousands of Giant Sequoias were cut down in the 1800s, basically for no reason and no money. No one would be complaining if we had more observations of those trees!
More in this YouTube short: Converse Grove in California
Thereās 16 observations of the famous Sycamore Gap Sycamore Maple in the UK that was cut down by vandals. Itās sad there isnāt more to remember it over the years. Sycamore Gap tree
In the future, AI will be able to sort out which tree is which. Just be sure to get the stump, whole tree, and some leaves and seeds close up. The whole tree photo can give a pretty good indication of a treeās health. Year to year, it will be possible to see what was going on with trees when.
Hello! New ambassador here, helped raise the count for our country! RN be translating and welding presentations for a guided walk this Saturday - aiding another freshly minted ambassador who knows the spot. Thank the team for canva templates - we avoided an AIslop flyer due to them.
Are there any Greater Cincinnati (Ohio)/ northern Kentucky iNaturalist ambassadors out there whoād be interested in attending an event at the NKU Field Station? The basics are:
What: REFS Nature Adventure Day
Ā· When: September 26, 2026, 1-5 p.m.
Ā· Where: 99 Harrison Court, Melbourne, KY 41059
Weāll have trained people (like me) giving guided hikes and little booths with information (ex. on invasive species) or activities (building native bee houses), so it would be a great place to have an iNaturalist booth with information, or if someone wanted to bioblitz along with one of our guided hikes or just with interested folks out in the wetlands (and we do have a project for the field station: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/st-anne-woods-and-wetlands-flora-fauna )
The event is open to the public and will be fun, so if youāre in the area but not an ambassador, feel free to join us.
If there is an ambassador whoād like to officially attend, you can message me through iNaturalist and we can discuss the details. Iām m_whitson
Hi there, Diego Almendras, iNaturalist Ambassador from Chile!
Just got a confirmation for an activity to have place this saturday 26 Sept :) yayyy took a lot of time to confirm, but it was too late to fill the form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScEuKJXS6DT2i7dtAd_5b4Y1d3afZj91sa4ZH_XeqBRyT-uNA/closedform?pli=1
it is ok to sent this information using the Ambassador Activity Reporting Form https://inaturalist.typeform.com/to/iemJDhNX I already did but then I realized is for past activities rathar for incoming ones
Both Saturdays we were blessed with great weather: sunny but with clouds diffusing light. Senior did a great job compiling a narrative over several stops of the 1,5 hour walk, whereas I tagged in finding something novel around the route, aiding people with taking pictures and app as well as finding something outstanding by the route. I was impressed by his route so Iāll briefly detail it. First stop was about mission and selecting features for observation - right in the thicket of invasive Hymalayan balsam, whose flowers, leaves, burst fruit and thickened glands on stems can all help characterize it. Second was Chaga and the importance of angles and focus on pictures - so it would not be mistaken for a bacterial gall. Third was salmon eggs with fruiting bodies and guttating red-banded polypore - that you can find organisms outside fungal/plant/animal with your naked eye. Forth was about his project concerning downy birch and the surrounding species. Final was just exploring and finding things. Highlights were lipstic powderhorn, copulating dragonflies and jays.