Search for observations based on a list of invasive species

https://www.fohvos.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Strike_Team_Do_Not_Plant_List_2020_04_24-1.pdf

Above is the list of NJ invasive plants.
How can search for all the observations in a NJ town that have a match in the list.
Can I create a project for it?
Thx

You can create an iNat List from these species – go to https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/new to start your list. Then once you’ve created it, choose Add Batch in the upper right.

image

The window tells you how to format your list: it should be a csv where each row is taxon name, description. You can also copy/paste all of them into the box, one per line.

Then when you go to do a search, you can use the list in your query, e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?list_id=1139967. Just replace the number with the number of your list.

It may be a little tricky to extract the list from your pdf – I can give you some tips for that if you want.

I should probably also warn you that your names may not match exactly with what iNat has, so you may need to do a little work to get them all in your list.

3 Likes

If iNat doesn’t already have the boundaries for your town, you’ll need to create a place for it, which will require that you have 50 verifiable observations (has a date, a location, image or sound, and has not been voted captive/cultivated). Then go to https://www.inaturalist.org/places/new to set up your place.




You can read more about projects here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/managing-projects
It may be worth noting that currently projects don’t allow Lists as taxon sources, you’d have to enter each one. (Though that may change in the future.)

2 Likes

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=51&subview=grid&iconic_taxa=Plantae&introduced=true

This is controlled by the list of species entered on the NJ state checklist set as introduced.

https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/349-New-Jersey-Check-List

Items if missing can be set to introduced (note inat does not differentiate between introduced and invasive, they use 1 category called introduced) by searching for the relevant species, opening the record in edit mode and changing the establishment means.

I’m unsure if your list draws a difference between invasive and introduced. If it does, then you will need to create a separate list as detailed above. Please do not edit the state check list to remove introduced settings to match your list unless you find something that is actually native set as introduced.

Please note I did not know how to interpret ‘a New Jersey town’. The 1st link above is for the state. If you mean a specific town then you need to either add the town (most town boundaries are not in the site) as detailed in the prior message, or the state counties or whatever they are called in the state will be there and you can edit the search to use the relevant county.

2 Likes

I’m a little confused by the wording here: “Please do not edit the state check list to remove introduced settings to match your list”. Could you clarify? I’m mostly asking because a while back I went through the NJ state checklist and marked remaining introduced flora as introduced if they were, so it would be marked on the individual observations. Was that ok to do?

1 Like

Of course it was both OK and a good thing for you to do. What I mean is I have no idea how complete the list that is linked to in the post is, and should they find something marked as introduced right now that happens to not be on their checklist, to not just remove that setting so the state checklist aligns with theirs, unless they know for sure the listing is in error and the plant really is native.

5 Likes

It’s possible to create a Project for invasive species. There’s one for New York City that might serve as an example of how to do it.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/invasive-plants-of-new-york-city

As @jwidness mentioned, you may need to create a place (or approximate with an existing place’s boundaries, if it’s close enough for your purpose), and you’ll need to enter each taxa in the Project, which is what made me think of the NYC list.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.