Thank you all, who replied. I didn’t realize one could create a project holding only one’s observations. And the issue of usefulness is right on: one never knows what someone in the future will be studying. Future usefulness may be a good rationale if one really wants to do something and needs a social justification, but the chances of a Thoreauan resurrection is probably nil.
What prompted me to consider that this might be helpful was that there is, to my knowledge, no requirement after a new species is introduced into the USA for that species and its impact be studied as least for an equivalent amount of time it took to study it before introduction.
My immersion into looking more carefully at nature is short: about 11 years, but even in that time I’ve noticed that species adapt and certain species have an awesome resiliency (like cypress trees). I’ve also begun to question whether some of the words we use, “invasive” being an example, may be too fraught with social-cultural biases. A good example in our area is native limpkins which we were told relied solely on the native Florida apple snails to thrive; the decline of the limpkin population, it was suggested, was due to the decline of the native apple snail population and the dominance of the island apple snail, a not a native species (invasive). However, I have seen limpkins thrive where there are no Florida apple snails (in SW Georgia), but where there are bountiful island apple snails. I have also seen at least one limpkin in a lake where its primary food, it seems, is the Asian clam (another non-native), as indicated by a nearby mound of Asian clam shells where it was. Based on observations of a meagre number of Florida apple snail clutches, there are not enough of this species for even a single limpkin pair to thrive. I’ve not seen island apple snail eggs or adults on this lake. I’ve since found that the Florida snail kites (from Gainesville, FL to the Everglades) have adapted and it’s threatened population growing due it’s dietary change from Florida apple snails which were decreasing in number to the non-native island apple snail which is increasing in number.
Seeing an increased variety of both plants and insects in alligatorweed stands, without knowing much about many of them, I thought the presence of these might indicated new relationships of predatory or of supportive nature. Spiders seemed to appear on the plants the next year after I first saw alligatorweed flea beetle eggs, larvae and adults. Did the spiders see an new food source? In which case, the notation “no know predator” in the reports prior to introduction of this bio-control agent might, after introduction, be amended. But, all I know is that they appear in greater numbers when alligatorweed flea beetles are present . And there seem to be more than one species of spiders present.
In another case, on one of two patches (2.5 miles apart by water) in a river near the Gulf coast, I’ve seen what was ID’d as an army worm as defoliant feeder, but have not seen it recently. Last week I saw a variety of insects and spiders on that patch, it seemed an anomaly. I’ve never seen some insects on alligatorweed. Some were clearly defoliating or causing the plant to wilt. The only other patch on that river was about 2…5 miles upriver. There the alligatorweed was thriving – no signs of leaf damage or visitations by insects or spiders. I suspect that would change before the summer solstice.
My questions of why not may be naive because of my lack of knowledge and experience. But, it would seem to me, that if one were targetting a species of non-natives for herbicide treatment, shouldn’t one know what other species have come to depend on that whole community of plants and other living things which would also be affected?
Back to the limpkins again. Island apple snails are opportunistic egg layers – whatever is growing in the water with appendages above the water is sufficient. Water hyacinths at least on the venue with a host of limpkins are dotted with the bright pink eggs of this snail… If herbicides were applied to the hyacinths, wouldn’t that affect the island apple snail and then also the population of limpkins? Does the agency which authorized such spraying know about that impact? Would it matter if they did know? (Another issue).
Regarding starting a project as a record of my own observations, I’m not enough of a scientific bend to be able to take it much beyond mere observations and personal generalizations. I think if there was some other merit for that project, I would set the defining indicator as the plant itself. Whatever is seen with that plant, whether by sheer coincidence of being blown in or chance feeding (the army worms) or an established pattern (water hemlocks thriving in the patches.)
And yes, I would have to manually add or delete other postings (a very time consuming task even though it would be confined to postings of plants in water (alligatorweed also grows along the shoreline, but the stems are not hollow when they become terrestrial.) But since each post on inaturalist should be of a single species, the chances of seeing any other plant or animal on a post would be slim. Since posts of animals don’t normally indicate proximity to other species, I couldn’t use this method (if there was someway to search by word in posts – is there?). So, I have to ask, what is the likelihood of harvesting posts of associations with alligatorweed be. If possible, the results would probably not be worth the effort.
Your responses have led me to think more operationally and it doesn’t seem such a good idea, and its value may be more as an example of a Quixotic venture – an impossible dream.