Joining the Herps of Texas Project
Just wanted to throw together a quick post inviting one and all to add their Texas Reptile and Amphibian records to the Inaturalist Herps of Texas Project - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/herps-of-texas.
To quote the project page -
"The purpose of this project is to enhance our understanding of the distribution of reptiles and amphibians in Texas. Our highest priority is to collect information on Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). However, we hope this project will lead to a better understanding of the distribution of all reptile and amphibian species in Texas and we encourage others to use this data for research and conservation purposes."
How to get involved:
1. Join the project
Go to the project home page (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/herps-of-texas) and click the Join link in the upper right hand corner.
2. Add your records
After you join, go to the project page and choose the "Add From My Observations" choice next to the map. That will bring up a screen of your eligible records. You can then select them (Select All) and using the "Add to Project" pulldown, add them all at once to the project.
A note about location settings
In order for a record to be added to the Herps of Texas project, you must allow the Project Managers and Curators to be able to see your private and obscured localities. This stipulation is to allow the managers/curators to be able to access the data for inclusion in several TPWD projects and for curators to be able to check identifications. The curators/managers will not share the location information and it is not visible to anyone not on this list. If you want to know who these curators are, look on the right side of the members page in the gray box (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/herps-of-texas/members). You can click each of their names and read their profiles.
Allowing Curator Access
If you would like to be part of the project and would like to change your settings, join the project and click "Your Membership" to the right of the map. On the right side of that page you will see this question -
"Do you want to make your private/obscured observation coordinates visible to the project curators?"
Choose either of the "Yes" options and you are now a member and your Texas Reptile and Amphibian records will be automatically added to the project.
Thanks for contributing!
Chris Harrison (sandboa)