[NatureNS] citizen science, nature sightings

Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:07:32 -0500
From: "Frederick W. Schueler" <bckcdb@istar.ca>
Organization: Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
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To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
CC: Paul L <contact@junponline.com>,
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live in Bedford, Nova Scotia 
On 2/22/2012 1:10 PM, Paul L wrote:

> I just learned of your nature sightings list and see there are many
> users publishing nature sightings. These sightings could provide useful
> scientific data when pooled together in a database (citizen science).
> That's why I created the website 'Wildlife Sightings',
> http://www.junponline.com
>
> I would appreciate any feedback from NatureNS users on this citizen
> science project and would be delighted to assist anyone with questions
> on it. I live in Bedford, Nova Scotia and could meet with any
> organizations wishing to use these free services to conduct their own
> wildlife surveys.

* we've had this idea of gathering in natural history observations since 
1992, when we tried to form a "Biological Checklist of [our local] 
Kemptville Creek Drainage Basin," of which the only surviving memorial 
is my e-mail address - bckcdb@istar.ca. Dan Ladouceur had the same idea 
and tried to launch it with his Green Bird Network, which seems to have 
languished since its launch in 2007 - http://www.techwiz.ca/greenbird/

One thing that survives from 1999 is our "Eastern Ontario Natural 
History NatureList" which is now a google group - 
http://groups.google.com/group/naturelist/about?hl=en - and which like 
NatureNS and NatureNB preserves thousands of observations from recent 
decades.

After various trials, and observing various databases having been shed 
or neglected by their sponsoring institutions, we're now trying to 
assemble a Canada-wide NGO, Fragile Inheritance - 
http://fragileinheritance.org/ - to standardize and archive such 
observations on all taxa. It's slow going, beset with interruptions and 
difficulties; it's a subject not regarded as "sexy" by potential 
funders, and we've been mostly consumed by keeping our own database fed 
with our own observations - 
http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/database/database.htm - now 
pushing 100,000 records, and trying to support ourselves.

There is a phenomenal amount of data in blogs and e-mail lists of 
various kinds, of various levels of accuracy and usefulness, both in 
private blogs and public sites such as ebird and bugguide, but some 
organization ought to be mining the various sources, wrenching records 
into a standard format, and georeferencing them as well as possible.

> Wildlife Sightings, http://www.junponline.com

* Fragile Inheritance has fretted that there hasn't been a generalized 
portal for natural history observations, and you've approached it, 
though without categories for inorganic and generalized records.

Kari Gunson of Eco-kare - http://www.eco-kare.com/index.html - is 
working with FI towards a database of road-related data (initially large 
roadkills) as a precursor to an adeqautely funded generalized natural 
history database.

So if you, or any on NatureNS, would like to join in this effort, we can 
add you to the FI mailing list, and we'll see what can come from the 
dream of having a uniform, archived, format for reporting and recording 
natural history data in Canada.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
          South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
          http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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