Title: Field Botany of the Maine Coast: Learning to Network with the iNaturalist Community
Instructor(s): Robert Wernerehl
Dates: July 30–August 5, 2023
Description: iNaturalist is an exciting, dynamic entryway to citizen science all across the globe, connecting biologists and those interested in “what’s out there” in the natural world around them. Participants will botanize from the Schoodic Peninsula to the Bold Coast National Scenic Byway, learning key skills that professional biologists use to elevate iNaturalist as a scientific tool. In the evening, observations will be examined in the lab and polished before posting to iNaturalist.
The course will provide an overview and background of the iNaturalist platform, the uses of it in New England, the basic unit of an observation, and its use in documenting species distributions and phenology. Field trips will involve hikes into wild meadows, streamsides, bogs, lakeshores, rocky summits, and mossy forests, all while improving photography skills for high quality observations in iNaturalist. While the instructor’s expertise is in vascular plants, we will also capture observations of other taxa such as mosses, lichens, liverworts, seaweeds, birds, herptiles, mussels, insects and other arthropods. The course is open to all levels of experience for those with a strong interest in botany.
Participants will be able to share their expertise with others in the course by assisting in identifications. A large selection of plant identification books will be available. Observations will serve as important and significant scientific contributions to the record of biodiversity by inclusion into the iNaturalist project “Down East and Acadia.”
Plan on bringing a camera or smart phone with a camera, either a smart phone or a laptop computer, a hand lens of 10X or higher, clothing and footwear that can be worn during fieldwork off trail.
