iNaturalist Projects

If you are unfamiliar with iNaturalist, it is a social science website and mobile application that allows anyone to log observations of organisms all over the world. The program houses image analysis software to make a guess as to the identity of the organism, but referring to other resources is always recommended. There is also a social component where others in the online community can confirm others' observations as peer reviewers, making observations "Research Grade." Scientists and professionals can download this data to answer questions about biodiversity, conservation, active ranges and so much more. 

We have created an iNaturalist Project called Life in Our Farmscape: The Biodiversity of Columbia County which focuses on observations located in Columbia County, NY, and another called Hawthorne Valley Biodiversity Study which focuses specifically on Hawthorne Valley.

We have both of these projects set to automatically add any observations made in Columbia County or on the farm but we encourage you to join the project anyway. Between our staff's specialties, we try our best to confirm identifications and give constructive feedback. 

Once you create an account, you can go here to watch some video tutorials on how it works and the best ways to document your findings! In general, the most important aspects are posting clear photos and making sure they have GPS coordinates (most cameras and smartphones do this automatically).