Well it’s better than mass slaughter of bison for their hides in the 1870’s, mass slaughter of birds for their feathers in the 1870’s - 1910’s, and mass slaughter of anything, for any purpose, at any time.
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If it wasn’t for Inat, I probably would never know what a white cheeked barbet was. Now I can roughly id local birds pretty well, as well as identify new ones with the software. Moreover, thanks to the fact that two people need to agree with your id for it to get research grade, less misidentifications happen. Not zero, but a whole lot get reduced.
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It is oh so difficult to resist exactly that temptation, but…
Well first off there’s my thanks to @ AdamWargon for making me stop and reflect on the positive things of life. Not a bad way to start the day. And thinking about it, isn’t that precisely one of the most positive things about this moment in time? That I, sitting at my desk in the Italian Apennines with my early morning coffee feeling a little sad and a bit lonely at all the not so good things that are happening in the world, can read and smile at the positive thoughts of someone in Canada (I believe) who I will probably never actually meet (but who knows!), but who in some small way I feel I already know a little.
I imagine that many, if not most, of those here live in situations where it’s not easy, maybe impossible, to share our love for nature with others in our immediate surroundings. And yet, through iNaturalist itself and this forum, we have an opportunity to break that loneliness, share our enthusiasm (or our dismay), get support and/or advice and even feel that in our own different ways we can actually make a scientifically useful contribution to something greater than ourselves. I really believe in all that positive synergy to give us that extra bit of energy we need to make a difference… and to smile more, which can’t be bad.
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When we lived in Porterville we went to Rocher Pan to see the sea. The water is seasonal and is now nature conservation for birds. In the visitor centre is a small display. Including a photo of proud Victorian ‘hunters’. DWARFED by a hill of dead waterbirds towering over them! Makes today somewhat better. Issues around upstream water use and farming. And then threats of mining.
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I can tell you that the Cuyahoga River is much cleaner now throughout its entire course. It goes through downtown Akron, through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and through downtown Cleveland.
People kayak and canoe in the national park. People paddleboard, kayak, row on the river in downtown Cleveland even when the big ore boats are moving up and down the river.
We birders enjoy the Cuyahoga River wherever we can get to it to look for birds. It’s not only waterfowl. It’s eagles (fishing and nesting long the river), the occasional osprey, kingfishers and gulls. It’s not only birds. There are mink, river otters and beavers that use it. River otters moved to Northeast Ohio from other parts of the state. They weren’t brought here/introduced by people in recovery efforts.
Over the decades since the national park (first a national recreation area) was created, the park has been cleaned up including removing many junk cars that lined the riverbanks that were used to stabilize the banks. Now, boulders and dirt with native plants are used for that purpose.
Over the past few years a dam has been removed in the national park. It was estimated that the water upstream from the dam was pretty much dead for a mile. Now, species of fish are already taking advantage of the new flowing water. And, diving ducks, eagles and herons are fishing there.
There’s another huge dam near downtown Akron that is in the process of being removed. That should improve things more.
There is still a lot of junk in the river. It’s not 100% clean. That’s because of how people have misused it since people started settling around it. But, there are a lot of efforts to clean it up including a lot of small organizations that work on the tributaries that empty into the Cuyahoga River. One is the West Creek Conservancy. They clean up many little spots of tributaries that empty into larger streams that empty in the larger river.
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I think the lives of Natures creatures are inherently valuable. And to destroy them or negatively impact them intentionally is a moral mistake, for which there are inevitable consequences.
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Yeah despite environmental doomerism being quite popular nowadays, there really has been a lot of positive improvement lately. A lot of the forests that were pretty much all wiped out in earlier centuries are growing back, wildlife is gaining more legal protections, pollution has been lessened and mitigated in a lot of areas, and environmental awareness is growing in society as a whole. Sure there’s areas that could still improve, but there really is a lot to be grateful for as nature lovers nowadays
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Thanks for the shout out on the videos, @AdamWargon !
So, I work in the “urban ecosystem” – a relatively ‘new’ ecoregion in the history of the planet, with loads of disturbances around every corner. Daily I see land being ‘developed’ and habitat being lost. But, one of the really amazing things that I notice is the resiliency of nature. In the cracks of the sidewalk or in a vacant lot, life persists. Sure, it may not look the same (perhaps that vacant lot is mostly non-native species), but as I continue to look, I’ll see tremendous biodiversity!
I think we’re all on the same page of iNaturalist amplifying our experience with nature – we’re crazy lucky to be within a global community of naturalists and be able to connect with not just nature, but each other! That’s pretty neat. :)
Meanwhile, anyone come visit us in Texas. :) Lots of fun gatherings coming up: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/104260-inaturalist-gatherings-2025
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Ooh, @sambiology, those look like fun! I wish that I thought a road trip was in the cards right now; I’d totally join y’all.
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euhm… Hope… Happiness… I saw the overly happily video (typically American for my taste).
Ok yes, you still can find bugs …
… but I see less Syrphidae (thats my speciality) than I did 35 years ago and I still see (in different continents) natural habitat destruction for profit… I still see kapitalists taking/grabbing everything they can, especially far away so it’s not visible, without remorse and with financial help (=banks).
Nothing positive about that.
I was happy to see climate change demonstrations by young people before the covid that gave me some hope though. And iNaturalist and the likes (e.g. observation.org) do help get the awareness needed.
Time to continue the demonstrations!
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