#master of wildlife

[rebeccathenaturalist]

An App Does Not a Master Naturalist Make

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/app-not-master-naturalist/ - I had written this as an op-ed and sent it to WaPo, but they had no interest, so you get to read it here instead!

I have mixed feelings about Michael Coren’s April 25 Washington Post article, “These 4 free apps can help you identify every flower, plant and tree around you.” His ebullience at exploring some of the diverse ecological community around him made me grin, because I know exactly what it feels like. There’s nothing like that sense of wonder and belonging when you go outside and are surrounded by neighbors of many species, instead of a monotonous wall of green, and that is a big part of what led me to become a Master Naturalist.

When I moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest in 2006, I felt lost because I didn’t recognize many of the animals or plants in my new home. So I set about systematically learning every species that crossed my path. Later, I began teaching community-level classes on nature identification to help other people learn skills and tools for exploring their local flora, fauna, and fungi.

Threeleaf foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata)

Let me be clear: I love apps. I use Merlin routinely to identify unknown bird songs, and iNaturalist is my absolute favorite ID app, period. But these tools are not 100% flawless.

For one thing, they’re only as good as the data you provide them. iNaturalist’s algorithms, for example, rely on a combination of photos (visual data), date and time (seasonal data), and GPS coordinates (location data) to make initial identification suggestions. These algorithms sift through the 135-million-plus observations uploaded to date, finding observations that have similar visual, seasonal, and location data to yours.

There have been many times over the years where iNaturalist isn’t so sure. Take this photo of a rather nondescript clump of grass. Without seed heads to provide extra clues, the algorithms offer an unrelated assortment of species, with only one grass. I’ve gotten that “We’re not confident enough to make a recommendation” message countless times over my years of using the app, often suggesting species that are clearly not what I’m looking at in real life.

Because iNaturalist usually offers up multiple options, you have to decide which one is the best fit. Sometimes it’s the first species listed, but sometimes it’s not. This becomes trickier if all the species that are suggested look alike. Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) all have pinnately compound, lanceolate leaves, and young plants of these three species can appear quite similar. If all you know how to do is point and click your phone’s camera, you aren’t going to be able to confidently choose which of the three plants is the right one.

Coren correctly points out that both iNaturalist and Pl@ntNet do offer more information on suggested species—if people are willing to take the time to look. Too many assume ID apps will give an easy, instant answer. In watching my students use the app in person almost everyone just picks the first species in the list. It’s not until I demonstrate how to access the additional content for each species offered that anyone thinks to question the algorithms’ suggestions.

While iNaturalist is one of the tools I incorporate into my classes, I emphasize that apps in general are not to be used alone, but in conjunction with field guides, websites, and other resources. Nature identification, even on a casual level, requires critical thinking and observation skills if you want to make sure you’re correct. Coren’s assertion that you only need a few apps demonstrates a misunderstanding of a skill that takes time and practice to develop properly—and accurately.

Speaking of oversimplification, apps are not a Master Naturalist in your pocket, and that statement —while meant as a compliment–does a disservice to the thousands of Master Naturalists across the country. While the training curricula vary from state to state, they are generally based in learning how organisms interact within habitats and ecosystems, often drawing on a synthesis of biology, geology, hydrology, climatology, and other natural sciences. A Master Naturalist could tell you not only what species you’re looking at, but how it fits into this ecosystem, how its adaptations are different from a related species in another ecoregion, and so forth.

Map showing Level III and IV ecoregions of Oregon, the basis of my training as an Oregon Master Naturalist.

In spite of my criticisms, I do think that Coren was absolutely onto something when he described the effects of using the apps. Seeing the landscape around you turn from a green background to a vibrant community of living beings makes going outside a more exciting, personal experience. I and my fellow nature nerds share an intense curiosity about the world around us. And that passion, more than any app or other tool, is fundamental to becoming a citizen naturalist, Master or otherwise.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[yoga-onion]

Legends and myths about trees

Legendary tree deities (20)

Leshy – ‘Forest guardian’, the lord of the forests

The Leshy is a tutelary deity of the forests in pagan Slavic mythology. He is the spirit who rules the forest and the hunt, and the master of the forest animals.

Leshy had well developed polymorphic skills. Mostly, he was appearing as an anthropoid creature, old  man with a beard, sometimes a one eyed cyclops. He could change his sizes due to the height of the forest. Moreover, he could take the form of animals such as wolf, bear, eagle-owl, or even transform into wind. Leshy’s helpers were  various small demons, ghosts and forest imps, such as auk (the ghost of echo), puszczewik, Mochowiks, (guardians of mosses) Lugowoj and Polewoj. There were also caring creatures, for example grybicz (mushrooms), jagodynicz (blueberries), pczelicz (bees), whose names clearly show what kinds of forest “inhabitants” they were taking care of.

Towards people, his behaviour was changing, from neutral to hostile. It depended mostly on how people treated the forest and its creatures. Leshy was especially unfriendly to hunters and lumberjacks, who were clearly violating his inhabited lands. Depending on his attitude, he could either misguide people, or help them to find a way out from the forest, play pranks by, such as scattering forest undergrowth from the basket, or protect them from wild animals attacks. Formerly, the place, where Leshy’s presence, or signs of his activity, were observed, was considered as a sanctuary. It was forbidden to come in to that part of the forest, but more importantly, to cause damage such as cutting down trees, hunt, or collect fruits of the undergrowth like nature reserves.

If you are walking through a deep, overgrown forest and feel someone looking at you or following you, it could be a Lshey. If you turn around to look at him, you cannot see him as he’s much quicker than you.

He may try to misorientates travellers entering the forest and lure them deeper into the forest, but if they wear their shoes backwards and their clothes backwards and forwards, the Laceys will be confused and their magic will be easily broken.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

伝説の樹木の神々 (20)

レーシー 〜「森の番人」、森の主

レーシーは、異教徒のスラブ神話の森の守護神である。彼は森と狩りを支配する精霊であり、森の動物たちの主でもある。

真っ白な頭髪と長い髭を持ち、足まで届く頭髪と髭で体が隠れている。 森の中では樹木と同じように大きくなり、森の外では木の葉に隠れられるほど小さくなるともいわれる。

レーシーはよく発達した多形能力を持っていた。最も一般的なのは、人間型生物、髭を生やした老人、時には一つ目のサイクロプス、不自然なほど白い顔の人間として現れることである。また、森の高さによって大きさを変えることができる。さらに、狼や熊、鷲のような動物の姿になったり、風に変身したりすることもある。レーシーの助っ人は、アウク (木霊)、プシュチェヴィク、モホヴィク、ルゴウォジュ（苔の守護者）、ポレウォジュなど、さまざまな小悪魔や幽霊、森の妖怪たちである。また、グリビッチ (キノコ)、ヤゴディニッチ (ブルーベリー)、プツェリッチ (ミツバチ)など、世話好きな生き物もいた。その名前は、彼がどんな森の「住人」の世話をしていたかを明確に示している。

人間に対しては、人々が森とその生き物をどのように扱うかに大きく左右された。特に、ハンターや木こりなど、明らかに自分の生態系を侵害するものに対しては、レーシーは非友好的であった。彼の出方次第で、人を迷わせたり、森からの脱出を手助けしたり、バスケットから森の下草を撒くなどのイタズラをしたり、野生動物の攻撃から守ったりすることができる。以前は、レーシーの存在や活動の痕跡が確認された場所は、聖域とされていた。自然保護区のように、その場所に立ち入ることはもちろん、木を切り倒すなどの被害を与えること、狩りをすること、下草の実を採取することも禁じられていた。

深く生い茂った森の中を歩いているとき、誰かの視線を感じたり後をつけられている感じがすれば、それがレーシーである可能性がある。 姿を見ようとして振り向いても彼の方が素早いので姿を見ることはできない。

森に入る旅人の方向感覚を狂わせ、森の奥に誘い込もうとすることもあるが、靴を逆に履いたり、服を前後逆に着たりすると、レーシーは混乱し、魔法は簡単に解けてしまう。

[artemis-the-starling]

Momma came home with the best treats ever! She made me this foraging box and put my favourite wormies in it! Probe probe probe

[pand1on]

the worst part of dedicating my studies and career to wildlife conservation is that i must remain steadfast in my advocacy for leaving wildlife the hell alone. looking at pictures of the domestic cat's close relatives with longing and sadness

[tatzelwyrm]

Me: "After Bloodborne, it's nice to play a game again in which literally every boss is first try."

Also me, 5 minutes later: *hysterical screaming*

[oakhammocks]

thinking abt quitting my job and completely restarting my career. I'm b/t wildlife biologist and librarian rn

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Wildlife by Alice Zilberberg

Hasselblad Masters 2021 Photo Competition

[red-eft]

i've been throwing myself headfirst into academia & my classes as though it'll actually give me an idea of what i want to do for the rest of my life and uh. it's working which is a surprise

[thisisthegay]

more Jedi Survivor replay ramblings, the Warrior perk takes the game to a whole new level of terrifying, because I stumbled into a pit with a beefier bilemaw and a mogu earlier. The mogu promptly merked my ass

also running through the mountaintop observatory with it is utter hell. There's the big beefy raider dudes with hammers around every corner, and those bastards are harder than any of the bosses I've fought in this replay

[tinyurbanwilderness]

So a couple of my friends and I are hoping to infiltrate the local master gardeners and disrupt them from the inside. They like begonias and hostas. We know in order to save our native ecosystems we have to plant local and regional native plants.

*this is a generalization. I actually know a couple who get it.

[mlclpuzzles]

PZ363 - Shoreline Neighbors

1000 pieces; 20 x 27 inches

A painted depiction of a waterside cabin bathed in the warm glow of an autumn sunset. In the foreground, a pair of Canadian geese are nesting, and in the background, further downstream, a farmstead can be seen.

Artist: Terry Redlin Series: Terry Redlin: The Master of Memories Company: White Mountain Puzzles, ©2013 #: 724819255658 | 121613-24819-A | item #974T

[djhenryhall]

Dive Guides Make Fish Identification Easy

Dive guides making fish identification easy in the #Critter Capital of the Caribbean. #scubadiving #stvincent #westindies #caribbean #nature #wildlife #underwater #photography

I spent a few days scuba diving in St. Vincent with the wonderful team at Dive St. Vincent. The marine ecosystem is quite healthy and abundant with life. It’s easy to understand why St. Vincent has earned the title of “Critter Capital of the Caribbean.” Frogfish The dive guides were amazing at spotting creatures like the frogfish gently sitting on the branching sponge in the photo above. All of…

[pierog]

having my sexy early 20s meddled by covid SUCKS but i feel soooo much worse for any kids or any high school teens out there... my heart goes out 2 u

[wausaupilot]

Woodson Art Museum names master wildlife artist

WAUSAU – The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum announced this week Swedish artist Gunnar Tryggmo as its 2024 master wildlife artist. Gunnar Tryggmo, A Hunter’s View, 2021, watercolor on Arches cold press paper. Image courtesy Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. He will be honored during the 49th annual “Birds in Art” exhibition this fall. Tryggmo, the 41st master artist, will receive the Master…

[ftlolbyexe]

just got the master chief collection 👍

(i am deranged about this franchise and its about to progress from hyperfixation to unsc point of no return. will try to get halo wars 1 and 2 eventually and then my collection will be complete. FUCK halo 5 btw i watched a campaign playthrough and it bored me to death. im not paying for that dumpster fire. and yeah ive only had infinite until now, other info sourced from a friend who also owns mcc, yt, halo waypoint, and halopedia.)

[mortiz888-blog]

Master your Backyard: Creating a Wildlife Habitat

Transforming your backyard into a thriving wildlife habitat can be an enriching and rewarding experience. Not only does it create an opportunity to contribute to the conservation efforts of local species, but it also allows you to become more connected to the environment that surrounds you. This undertaking requires a fundamental understanding of the types of local wildlife, migration patterns,…