I am interested in small areas in Piedmont regions and Appalachian mountains of Eastern USA which often have unique climates and species of flora and fauna (bogs, shale barrens, relativity high altitude forests or scrub forests (usually from 2500 to 4500 feet elevation) , springs and valleys. I am less interested in doing 1 or a few days surveys (eg chistmas bird counts, or challenges) and more into long running surveys and monitoring. Also I am less interested in ‘keying down’ or identifying every plant or animal in an area, than in just doing a general survey and monitoring ecosystems or what are called biomes.
The biomes in mk area range from cypress swamps at near sea level, to spruce-fir-tamarack bogs and forests at elevations from 3000 to 4800 feet. Some of these areas are under stress due to invasive species and likely climate change (so book trout are dissapearing, some tree species are dying off).
I’d be interested in whether anyone in this group has an interest in monitoring, surveying and visting these areas. Many of them are not on major trails and can be several miles from the nearest road.
Welcome to the iNat forums! The great thing about iNat, is you don’t have to key out and identify everything. You can focus on getting good diagnostic photos for what you see, and just put a class or order level ID. In other words, just put the level of ID you are confident with, and let the experts take it from there. Even if there are no experts for that area or taxa at present, some stage down the track the right expert will come along and take your IDs further. I am still getting the odd ID come through for observations I made 4 years ago, but they are typically obscure species, or where the photos weren’t that good. Keep a look out on the map of your observations, as you might see pins from other people start to show up… then you know there is another active iNatter near you!
I’m interested in small areas in my region of USA with unique ecosystems–there are all kinds of uncommon or rarely seen plants (eg orchids, club moss, ferns, some trees like paper birch, tamaracks and fir) and animals (green and many other kinds of snakes,. bobcats, coyotes, peregrine falcons, brook trout, snowshoe hares) . I don’t know many people interested in these , and you have to walk alot very commonly to see them.