My intended career in coastal ecology & conservation was sidelined by chronic illness. I focused my studies in college on fishes, crustaceans, and birds. I've been broadening my knowledge of plants, insects, spiders, and herps since then. Also finally learning how to ID fungi. I love being able to contribute as a citizen scientist. Besides iNaturalist I've also been contributing to eBird for several years. Recently I've been focusing on learning bird songs.

Since 2018 I've been living within the Big Thicket area of southeast Texas. I volunteer for Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve which is near the Big Thicket National Preserve Turkey Creek Unit. I help trim trails and co-lead educational walks. I'm also the curator for the Watson Preserve project here on iNaturalist.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/watson-preserve

Heat map of my IDs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/map?ident_user_id=lappelbaum#2/0/0
Identifier stats: https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_identifier_stats.html?user_id=lappelbaum
IDs for others: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_user_id=lappelbaum&not_user_id=lappelbaum

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