Just a reminder that the identification marathon starts THIS Friday at 7 PM! I'll tag everyone at the end of this post, but I am thrilled that we have over 50 people already signed up for this project.

Also, this past weekend I noted some "baseline data" about how the Needs ID pile of New England and New York plant observations changed over the same time period as the coming ID-a-thon. I put "baseline data" in quotes because these numbers are just one snapshot in time, but they do give us some idea of the "usual" numbers of plant IDs that push observations to Research Grade or Casual over the course of a weekend.

So, at 7 PM this past Friday night, Feb. 16, there were 1,573,607 observations of plants in New England and New York that needed IDs. Those are all plants at all taxonomic levels. By 7 PM Sunday night, Feb. 18, there were 1,572,488 observations of plants in New England and New York that needed IDs. That's a decrease of 1,119 observations, a reduction in the overall Needs ID pile. Of course, there were also new plant observations being added over the weekend, but overall, the IDs out-weighed the additions. Note that this figure of 1,119 is a minimum number of plant IDs made over the weekend, because there were almost certainly IDs being made that didn't result in the observations moving out of the Needs ID pile - for example, an ID that moved an observation at the Kingdom level (Plantae) down to the genus level (say, Acer).

Can we make enough IDs during the marathon to reduce the Needs ID pile by more than this "baseline" of 1,119? Absolutely! Can we make more than 10 times that number? Maybe? Can we reduce the plant Needs ID pile by 1%, which is 15,000 to 16,000 IDs in just 48 hours? I don't know about that, but we can try! I'll be back tomorrow with a post on the various ways an observation can become Research Grade or Casual, but in the meantime, I'll tag everyone (not just project members) here one last time:

@acknaturenerd, @adamkohl, @agave6_tomwalker, @akilee, @albach, @alex_abair, @alex_iosipenko, @allisonbf, @amandammvt, @anaturalfocus, @animalview29, @annschunior, @apgarm, @arethusa, @astrobirder, @azik, @babs22, @bellakat224, @beniiiii, @berkshirenaturalist, @bethstandard, @bgaudubon, @billmac, @birderboy2015, @birders130, @birdleaves, @bkatzenberg, @bmvig, @bpagnier, @brothernorbert, @bryanconnolly, @bryanpfeiffer, @btk, @bugman1388, @carex, @carl291, @cbarron, @cbuelow45, @ceaustin, @ceiseman, @cesarcastillo, @cgbb2004, @charlie, @choess, @cobrien207, @conboy, @connormac, @crx2aj3, @cschorn, @csledge, @curiousbynature, @cypselurus, @danbotany87, @danielatha, @dani_lilienkamp, @danlharp, @davidenrique, @dawnvla, @ddubois2, @deb59, @deparia1950, @djolles, @djringer, @dogwoodvalley, @donlubin, @dorothy, @doug_mcgrady, @dysm, @edfuchs, @edgarallenhoopoe, @erica_arborea, @edropkin, @elacroix-carignan, @elaphrornis, @elizajsyh, @ellenjones6, @ellsp, @er1kksen, @er-birds, @ericpo1, @erikamitchell, @frousseu, @garymitchell, @goosiaczek, @gpalermo, @grantfessler, @grazing, @gtasaints, @guidobrusa, @hallm, @hcoste, @hollyyoung, @human_landfill, @hydrophilus, @ian_medeiros, @igor_kuzmin, @ikinahandcr, @irag, @jackcadwell, @jacksonfrost, @jasondombroskie, @jef, @jformanorth, @jholmes, @jimbo225, @jljones, @joedziewa, @josh_rudder, @jsolfrian, @judyasarkof, @julie_richburg1, @karenlombard, @karolina, @karro_frost, @katamamurray, @kcbowmanphd, @kebsearcy, @kellyfuerstenberg, @klodonnell, @kpmcfarland, @larixlaricina, @larry216, @lmtaylor, @lovescinow, @lpagano, @lythronax246, @mamiles, @margaretcurtin, @marvelliott, @maryah, @matthias55, @mattstanton, @mcharpentier, @mickicolbeck, @mikeakresh, @mjpapay, @mnerrie, @mohale, @mollyopsis, @moxiel, @mradik, @mtjones, @mugglelissa, @natemarchessault, @nebotany, @nick2524, @nmes, @nonenmac, @no6km, @nsharp, @ntepper, @nycnatureobserver, @origamilevi, @patswain, @peakaytea, @petersmj, @plbuttercup, @plnthunter22, @polemoniaceae, @polypody, @quietlymagical, @radbackedsalamander, @rcurran, @rdstevenson, @rherold, @rinaturalist, @robbieedun, @russ_cohen, @rynxs, @sadawolk, @sally_jacobson, @sengelbo, @shaunmichael, @slamonde, @smpierce, @smrozak, @someplant, @splnddfairywren, @spochron, @spritelink, @srall, @stephanieradner, @stevendaniel, @susanelliott, @susanhewitt, @tarpinian, @thomashulsey, @threepogonias, @tmurray74, @tomaszavada, @trscavo, @tsn, @vicki_l, @vickidoo, @wanderingeden, @wayne_fidler, @wdvanhem, @wefwef, @wernerehl, @williambee, @wnyjw, @wojciech, @wsweet321, @xris, @yayemaster, @zihaowang, @zitserm

Posted on February 20, 2024 01:55 PM by lynnharper