Eleven and Counting!
After a couple false starts, I have a system for adding trees to this project.
The original goal was to create a set of rules which would automatically scrape all the individuals and place them in a collection project. That quickly became too unwieldy. I had to create KML files for very specific boundaries. Even still, if there were species listed that happened to occur within another boundary, it would scoop those up too. So I abandoned that version.
Then I thought I could collect notable trees into a traditional project. It was promising, because it gave me the ability to add only the individuals that I knew were the specific trees I was after. But I had to add all the trees in the same traditional project which made the search tools useless.
Finally I made traditional projects for each tree. That worked, and I found that it has a lot of benefits. I can include information on each tree under their separate project pages, which makes everything more organized. There is a useful search tool that helps me find observations not yet in the project. The umbrella project contains a map, a leaderboard, and links to each individual tree project. Additionally, if I happen to come across an existing project for a notable tree, I can add it to the umbrella project rather than rebuild it myself.
I currently have projects for eleven trees. Each one is quite a bit of work! I have to cross-reference maps and articles before I can narrow down the location for each tree. I restrict the taxon to genus and by doing this I have caught a few observations that are lacking species ID or are misidentified. It's a lot easier to identify a tree when you're looking at the same one over and over!
If I can find a single observation of a notable tree, I will create a project. If there are no observations of a tree I have read about on Wikipedia or elsewhere, I let it go (for now). Each project has a link back to the umbrella project for ease of navigation.
Unfortunately, it does not stay up to date automatically. I will have to revisit the individual projects periodically to add new observations.
Is this a worthwhile project? Great question! Nothing quite like it exists yet on iNaturalist, and the tools make it so easy to do, I decided to do it myself. There is something about collecting numerous observations of the same organism that I find interesting. It is also a conservation project that I hope people get invested in. Charismatic megaflora!
Please feel free to suggest additional trees that should be added to the project. I can do it or help you add it yourself.
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