Diario de aphili8

good discussion on Ilex crenata vs glabra
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/103906914

Pretty hopeless for me, but here is some information if I get the chance to devote time to them

Grout's text on Mosses - on the older side but apparently still used. I worry that perhaps the taxonomic tree has changed since then.
https://archive.org/details/mosseswithhandle00grou_0/page/n15/mode/2up

There is a book "Outstanding Mosses and Liverworts of Pennsylvania and nearby States" By Susan Munch
This looks good because only a hand lens is needed - no microscope.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2157875.Outstanding_Mosses_Liverworts_of_Pennsylvania_Nearby_States

also
Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians
By McKnight - also doesn't require a microscope

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17028276-common-mosses-of-the-northeast-and-appalachians

I've been going with my gut for most of my poison ivy identifications, but recently had a correction - apparently I haven't really differentiated between vines with roots on them.
Here's one source.
https://natlands.org/mariton-poison-ivy-and-virginia-creeper/

Virginia creeper germinating
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46423097

I'd never much thought about the damage feral cats do, but I'm starting to think they should be limited with a heavier hand. Seems like I've seen too many instances of cat prey on here. Here's an example...
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69623442

I was wondering where I might see a flying squirrel and did an "explore" to find out. Good thing that I won't have to travel far for the southern species. Bad thing that the northern species is endangered... Cats can't be helping.

A discussion on the best way to issue project invites is here
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/contact-observers/28025

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85376189

Parts of goldenrod
https://uwaterloo.ca/astereae-lab/research/goldenrods/goldenrod-morphology

Genus divisions
https://uwaterloo.ca/astereae-lab/research/goldenrods/classification-and-illustrations

Common Fumitory - fumaria officinalis - This is the most often seen naturalized here

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/fumaria/officinalis/
https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/common-fumitory

Common Ramping Fumitory -Fumaria muralis seems to pop up too

Guides to Fumitory in the UK

https://naturebftb.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Fumitories-and-Ramping-fumitories-crib.pdf

http://webidguides.com/_templates/group_fumaria.html

http://midatlanticnature.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-identify-white-violets-of-mid.html#:~:text=The%20small%20white%20flowers%20typically,two%20petals%20reflexed%20and%20twisted.&text=Another%20important%20identification%20point%20is,are%20more%20ovate%20to%20orbicular.

Ideas for changing our project:

Oregon switched to an automatic collection project. It automatically collects all the observations of the desired species from the desired area. That's why they are dusting all the other areas in number of records!

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/oregon-imapinvasives-collector/journal

NatureServe has an umbrella project. Nice to see how we rank with others... but also potentially a useful thing for us to consider if we want mini-projects within an umbrella project (eg early detection species, high priority species, and everything else).

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/natureserve-network-invasives-umbrella-project

DRAWBACKS:
We will get a LOT of data with collections projects, and a lot of it may not even be accurate. I see there are a few observations of alligatorweed, for instance, that I seriously doubt are alligator weed. There will also be a lot of horrible pictures and data that should have been marked cultivated but wasn't.

Maybe make two collection projects for early detection and priority species, and then a regular project for the rest? Then an umbrella project for the three projects? possibly retire the current project and add it as a fourth?

Copyright regs? I have little knowledge of this, but some people have copyright restrictions on their pictures. This will automatically put their observations on our project without their consent. Most people have very lenient restrictions that we abide by (giving credit to the photographer) and most people also want their data to be used for these kinds of projects... but if we are going to continue to use pictures for this we might want to see if we can exclude people with tighter restrictions because I don't think we can always make that assumption? Probably Amy has a better idea about this than I do, though.

Even without collections projects, we have added a number of observations with no copyright permissions. If they are part of the project they have consented, but if they are not they haven't read the project rules. There are some that currently don't allow use of pictures, and I suppose there is always the possibility that a user might change copyright restrictions... is it retroactive? how would we prove it?

Obscured
Date is month and year for obscured observations now. Can we just enter under the 15th if the user doesn't give a date?

Duplicate
I have been making a note when I enter something directly into iMap so that we don't enter it again from iNat. is this good enough?