Proper Use of Place Checklist + Place Project Questions

[ekimbro]

I created a new place for my favorite local park, and have been trying to get it set up nicely. For the checklist, I have added every species that I could find research-grade observations of in the park on iNaturalist, plus a few species I have definitely seen there in person.

However, I know there are more species than that in the park. Is it possible for other people to add species to the list, too, or does this happen automatically somehow, or do I need to keep an eye out for new verified observations to add to the list myself? Does anyone have advice for running a place page well and keeping the taxa updated, and making sure they’re accurate? I’m a little worried as some of the taxa are things I’m not familiar enough with to ID myself, I’m kind of relying on the community’s consensus for them.

I also wanted to ask advice about whether/what kind of project to create to go along with my newly created place. I have read through the page about this but still am not sure what I should do. Just having the place without a project is obviously an option, and what I’m leaning towards right now, at least for the time being. However, are people on iNaturalist more likely to notice and contribute to the place if it has an accompanying project, or is a project somehow more useful for people who are curious about the park than just a place? If so, is it better to do a traditional or collection project? A collection project looks easier, but I’m more concerned with usefulness than ease. I don’t mind putting in work to make my place and/or affiliated project successful.

Finally, I am interested in the possibility of running a Bioblitz sometime in the future (not right away), but is there a risk of that being seen as stepping on toes? I’m not affiliated with the park, I just really like it, so I don’t want to make them mad by organizing an unauthorized Bioblitz. It is a city park that charges a low admission fee if that is relevant.

[ekimbro]

Oh, also, how do I get organisms to show up as native in a place? Right now, my place’s page insists it has no native organisms at all, which is not true. Many of the organisms found there and included on the lists are native.

[m_whitson]

Any user can add new species to your place checklist by searching for the place, selecting “about” (rather than “view observations”), viewing the checklist, using the “find” function to locate the binomial name they want, and clicking “add”.
Anyone can also add “establishment means” (introduced, native, endemic) for a place & species, also from the checklist page of the place. Search for the particular species, click “comments” to see what notes have been added about the species, and you’ll get a page with a place to select “establishment means” and leave a note. There are probably some help files on this somewhere, but for plants, I think iNat mostly uses Kew’s Plants of the World Online to define native ranges. Whenever I enter native or introduced for a species, I always leave a note saying where I got that innformation, so that people can decide whether it came from a good source or not. For some species, there’s a lot of argument or uncertainty still about where they are native versus where they’ve been introduced to.

[jwidness]

@ekimbro

For the checklist, I have added every species that I could find research-grade observations of in the park on iNaturalist

Just to be clear, listing all the RG species in a place is possible without using a Checklist, the Explore page will do that under the species tab. For example, here is the list of species in Jennings State Forest:

@ekimbro

Is it possible for other people to add species to the list, too, or does this happen automatically somehow, or do I need to keep an eye out for new verified observations to add to the list myself?

All of the above – as m_whitson said, other people can add to the checklist, also there is some functionality for auto-updating (but it’s kind of broken and was scheduled to be turned off, not sure what the status with that is), and you can keep checking and adding yourself.

@ekimbro

Does anyone have advice for running a place page well and keeping the taxa updated, and making sure they’re accurate?

Oof, place pages are one of the older parts of iNat and they’re somewhat hidden and buggy (and unlikely to be fixed any time soon). The species list on Explore works great, but doesn’t list species that are unobserved. One possible workaround is to post a date-less, photo-less observation and then turn off Verifiable in the search filters.

That’s still kind of iffy though, since it implies you personally observed that species. But I don’t think it’s that different from voucher records posted to iNat, and that happens fairly regularly.

I think maybe if you explained what you would like to use the species list for (e.g. outreach, satisfying your curiosity, etc.) we could give more tailored advice.

@ekimbro

are people on iNaturalist more likely to notice and contribute to the place if it has an accompanying project, or is a project somehow more useful for people who are curious about the park than just a place?

To be honest, place pages are kind of hidden, but so are projects. For example, the apps let you see “projects nearby”, but the list is only Traditional Projects, not Collection projects, so I don’t think many people find new projects to join this way. If you want people to contribute, I would suggest looking at the section for “Ideas for Project Outreach” on the managing projects page.

In terms of which project type, I would definitely suggest Collection over Traditional. (If you really want your project to show up in nearby projects on the app, you can start as Traditional and immediately convert.)

@ekimbro

is there a risk of that being seen as stepping on toes? I’m not affiliated with the park, I just really like it, so I don’t want to make them mad by organizing an unauthorized Bioblitz. It is a city park

That’s probably something to ask the city, though I would be surprised if they told you not to do it.

@ekimbro

my place’s page insists it has no native organisms at all

Hmmm, I’m not sure what most people would think, but I personally wouldn’t see empty results and assume no native species. I would just assume the establishment means hasn’t been set.

In addition to the response above about setting the establishment means, you should also be able to batch add/update establishment means using the csv upload.

[ekimbro]

This is all super helpful, thank you so much! It answers most of my questions, although I’m still on the fence about whether a project would be helpful. As for this:

I think maybe if you explained what you would like to use the species list for (e.g. outreach, satisfying your curiosity, etc.) we could give more tailored advice.

I want the list to be as comprehensive as possible about what species are in the park, and I want it to have the most information possible about establishment means, how common species are, and anything else that would be possible to include. I want it to be an effective educational resource for people who are interested in learning about the park - there’s not much information I can find online about what species can be found there, not even extremely basic stuff. I want to learn more about the park myself through the list, too, but that’s kind of a secondary goal/necessary side benefit of trying to build this kind of resource as a non-expert.

The things I think a project might possibly be useful for and would like input about are as follows.

First of all, I can’t effectively add establishment and common-ness information about every single species in the park, because I don’t know that information. I can probably find establishment info for most of them online since it would be the same species that are native or introduced in the general area, but I can’t find how common they are in the park - like I said, there’s very little info about the park’s biodiversity online. There are a small number of extremely common species I can flag as common, but that’s all. I would like it if other people could help add information about establishment status and especially how common species are so it can be included, and I wonder if having a project would help encourage people to do so.

Second of all, I want people to be able to learn about the park through the place page. I wonder if making a project would help more people find it or garner more interest.

Finally, I’d like people to be motivated to add new observations in the park so we can find out more about what species are present there and add them to the list. There’s definitely gaps in the current list. I wonder if having a project would help encourage people to do that.

[cthawley]

It definitely sounds like making a project will be helpful - people are not going to want to find and interact with places and checklists for the most part as they are clunky/confusing.

[ekimbro]

It definitely sounds like making a project will be helpful - people are not going to want to find and interact with places and checklists for the most part as they are clunky/confusing.

Wonderful, thank you so much! I’ll work on getting it set up, then.

Also, @jwidness :

To be honest, place pages are kind of hidden, but so are projects. For example, the apps let you see “projects nearby”, but the list is only Traditional Projects, not Collection projects, so I don’t think many people find new projects to join this way. If you want people to contribute, I would suggest looking at the section for “Ideas for Project Outreach ” on the managing projects page.

In terms of which project type, I would definitely suggest Collection over Traditional. (If you really want your project to show up in nearby projects on the app, you can start as Traditional and immediately convert.)

I will review that page again and try to figure out what I’ll do for outreach. Looking at the projects again with a more clear idea of what I want to use them for, I think I’ll start out like you recommend - making a traditional project but then immediately converting it to a collection project - but might ultimately make an umbrella project and some other side projects for things like species that more data about establishment and occurrence is needed for.

[jwidness]

@ekimbro

I want the list to be as comprehensive as possible about what species are in the park, and I want it to have the most information possible about establishment means, how common species are, and anything else that would be possible to include.

If you want these kinds of things, it sounds like the checklist is the best option. But yeah, checklists are pretty hard to find and you’ll probably need to actively share it with others if you want them to use it. And I agree a project seems like a good way to do that.