I wanted to start a project for a specific location, but when I enter the observation requirements for “places”, it doesn’t seem to be saved. I hit enter and the place disappears, I hit done, down below and when I preview it the location hasn’t been saved either.
The icon to the left of the 3 categories, taxa, places, users, do not do anything.
The place is in iNat, I created it a couple of weeks ago.
I am having this same problem. I’ve uploaded a KML for my new place (FCAT Reserve) and everything. I’m wondering if the dropdown Place menu for Projects maybe incorrectly references locations on GoogleMaps or something where I haven’t yet established this new Place? I tested this theory by searching for another reserve I know is indexed on Google (Reserva Jama-Coaque), and it shows up on the Project Places list. Do we need to create places on GoogleMaps in order to find them on iNaturalist projects??? Please help!
No, places do not have to come from Google Maps, projects can be made from iNat community curated places. For example, this project which I admin uses a place not in Google Maps:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/biodiversity-of-the-hamilton-study-area
@karen33317 and @m_ellis, it’s helpful if you can include links to your projects and places to help troubleshoot.
I can confirm that while I can find FCAT Reserve in the main header search, it doesn’t appear in the dropdown when I try to add it to a collection project:
I deleted it the first time since it wasn’t working, here it is anew.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/plantation-fl-broward-county
You can see, it is gathering observations from all of iNat, even though I put the location in. The location isn’t saved though.
based on the screenshot above, i don’t think you’ve properly selected your place. you need to actually select it from the dropdown menu that appears as you type in the name of the place. when i’ve selected a place from the dropdown mens, i see it show up under the selection box, in a dark gray pill-shaped container.
If this is the place you’re trying to add, I’m able to successfully add it to the filters for a collection project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/places/141426
FCAT reserve seems to be a single-point place or otherwise it’s a strangely create polygon-based place. below is what i see when i try to pull up the place from the API (https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/places/141541). it has a bounding box, but the place itself doesn’t have a polygon defined (“geometry_geojson”: null):
{
"total_results": 1,
"page": 1,
"per_page": 1,
"results": [
{
"ancestor_place_ids": [
97389,
7512,
92414,
141541
],
"bounding_box_geojson": {
"coordinates": [
[
[
-79.6750347968,
0.362593336
],
[
-79.6750347968,
0.3815516084
],
[
-79.6593564469,
0.3815516084
],
[
-79.6593564469,
0.362593336
],
[
-79.6750347968,
0.362593336
]
]
],
"type": "Polygon"
},
"bbox_area": 0.000297234428186713,
"admin_level": null,
"place_type": 100,
"name": "FCAT Reserve",
"location": "0.3718023201,-79.6677039448",
"id": 141541,
"display_name": "FCAT Reserve, EC",
"slug": "fcat-reserve",
"geometry_geojson": null
}
]
}
i would try to recreate the place and make sure it shows up with a proper place boundary in the Explore page map before trying to add it to a project.
Thank you. I see what I was doing wrong. I copied and pasted the name, so I would have it correct. Instead I should have been typing and the drop down menu appears.
@m_ellis
Took me a bit to figure out how to draw the polygon. You have to start and end with the first coordinate. Here is an abbreviated version of the map I drew and how to create the polygon for the KML
Thanks for the help everyone! It seems the KML file I was given was a converted GPS track (line) and not a polygon. I created a new polygon per your recommendations and that solved it.