Diario del proyecto California OakWatch

Sept 7 is #CABiodiversityDay!
To celebrate CA being a global #biodiversity hotspot, there are celebratory events planned for Sept 2-10.

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/CABiodiversityDay2023

¡Por si te lo perdiste!

Acompañenos a nuestro seminario virtual organizado por el equipo de California OakWatch. Comenzaremos con una introducción a iNaturalist y a nuestro proyecto California OakWatch y luego hablaremos sobre la identificación de encinos. Este seminario web incluye presentaciones de los expertos botánicos José Luciano Sabás Rosales y Óscar Soto Arrellano, que detallarán la mejor manera de identificar encinos. Este seminario virtual pretende servir como recurso educativo y motivar a más personas para contribuir al proyecto California OakWatch en iNaturalist.

Observation of the Month | June

Bush Interior Live Oak (Quercus wislizeni var. frutescens)
© Jordan Collins (CC-BY-NC)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165248929

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July Quercus Quest: ID Cookout and Virtual Fireworks

You are all invited to the carne asada! Join us on this celebratory cookout. Everyone, bring something to the table as we cook up some identifications this month. Sit down and watch the project light-up like fireworks! Participating this month is simple - get as many identifications as possible!
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Details

The 4th of July weekend really kicked-off July for us and we would like to invite you to participate in our July Quercus Quest. This month's challenge we encourage you to delve into a world of oaks and identify as many observations as possible. Help us get as many observations to Research Grade!

1) There are currently 29,600+ observations in the project that need ID:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=california-oakwatch&quality_grade=needs_id&verifiable=any
2) Additionally, there are 16,900+ observations of oaks only identified to genus that could use some help and could possibly count towards our OakWatch Project!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?lrank=genus&place_id=62068&taxon_id=47851

Every 500 identifications will enter you in a raffle to win an oak t-shirt from F.M. Roberts Publications:
https://fmrpublications.com/shop
DO NOT miss the opportunity to win a beautiful CA scrub oaks/CA oak trees t-shirt!

We will also be raffling OakWatch Pins!

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Resources

To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide: https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf

CA OakWatch Training Webinar

June Quercus Quest: Summer Solstice

As the summer solstice approaches, we invite you to join us in celebrating the beauty and diversity of our beloved oaks. This month's challenge focuses on observations, encouraging you to explore, document, and share your findings. Starting tomorrow, the longest day of the year, we encourage all participants to make as many observations as possible! In the last 10 days, 280 observers made approximately 474 observations, lets aim to double that number in the next 10 days!

The top observer from June 21st - June 30st will be rewarded with a California OakWatch Pin!

Remember, use the Observation field to note the tree life stage!
tree life stage: seedling, sapling, mature, resprout, seed
https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields/15277

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Resources

To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide: https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf

CA OakWatch Training Webinar

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Observation of the Month | April

Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)
© velodrome (CC-BY)

Note: Every monthly Quercus Quest will also feature one of the many incredible observations made last month. Over 2,200 observations were added to the project! Thank you all for your contribution and congratulations to @velodrome for having the most “faved” observation last month. I will reach out soon and also send you a California OakWatch Pin!

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May Quercus Quest

It is difficult to believe that April is over and today is the first of May. This past month has been filled with so many celebrations! To start, superblooms are upon us! The unusual wet season earlier this year have brought us beautiful superblooms throughout California. Also, on April 15-22 we celebrated Native Plant Week which ended on Earth Day! Now, this past weekend was also the start of the City Nature Challenge. I hope that anyone who participated this weekend from April 28-May 1st has the opportunity to upload your observations and gear up for the identification period of the challenge (May 2nd- May 7).

With the start of May, we bring you our first Quercus Quest, a monthly celebration of oaks to encourage naturalist to participate in our California OakWatch project. This month's Quercus Quest is simple – make as many identifications of oaks as possible!

1) There are currently 27,700+ observations in the project that need ID:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=california-oakwatch&quality_grade=needs_id&verifiable=any
2) Additionally, there are 16,300+ observations of oaks only identified to genus that could use some help!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations lrank=genus&place_id=62068&quality_grade=needs_id&taxon_id=47851&verifiable=any
3) If you would like to participate in this Qurcus Quest while also taking part in the city nature challenge, be sure to start identifying those observations made from April 28-May2!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-04-29&d2=2023-05-01&place_id=any&project_id=california-oakwatch&verifiable=any

The top 3 identifiers from May 1st - May 31st will be rewarded with a California OakWatch Pin.

Good luck!

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Resources

To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide:
https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf

CA OakWatch Training Webinar

Upcoming Bioblitz

Gall Week Spring 2023!

Details: Saturday, April 15 – Sunday, April 23

Hello everyone,

I wanted to take a second to share this amazing project with you all. Check out the third Gall Week event and their first Spring event happening this weekend: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-spring-2023

To participate in the project event, be sure to join the project and submit your gall observations manually. Additionally, don't forget to add additional information about the host plant, especially if it's an oak! You can add observation fields: Host and Host Plant ID

Also, join the Galls of California project on iNaturalist and contribute there as well! Check out their journal post here to learn more about galls and review the resources posted!

Earth Discovery Institute: iNaturalist Oak Identification Workshop

Date: Saturday, April 15 | 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Details: Location | Crestridge Ecological Reserve; 1171 Horsemill Rd., El Cajon, CA 92021

Registration Link: https://earthdiscovery.org/Events/details/125/iNaturalist-Oak-Identification-Workshop-April-15th

Hello everyone,

Plugging in this amazing opportunity for those of you in the area that are interested! Learn about the important role Oaks play in our ecosystems, and how to identify them based upon defining characteristics.

All ages are welcome and encouraged to attend. Link to register above!

For the love of oaks: An identification party
Dates: Feb 16, 2023 | 5-6 PM (PT)
Details: Virtual ID Party

Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3CdezZW

Happy New Year and Welcome 2023!

First, I’d like to take this time to thank you all for a fantastic year with the launch of our project in the Summer. I am excited to continue our work to map (young) oaks throughout California with the year ahead! Love will be in the air this February on our new Quercus Quest. Don’t let your love for oaks end after Valentines Day! Help us reach our goal to get as many Quercus observations to Research Grade as possible! Anyone who is interested in an hour of socializing and collaborating on iNaturalist are invited to join.

Currently, the project has around 75,000 observations but only about 63% of those observations are at Research Grade. Additionally, there are approximately 15,000 observations identified only to genus level. Help us in resolving these identifications, so we can add more Research Grade observations to our project!

We will have a panel of experts to facilitate the conversation and we can work collaboratively to help identify any tricky observations. We encourage anyone to come join us! This online event is open to identifiers of all experience levels. It would also be great for those with observations that need to be identified to join us and see if anyone in the group can help! In addition to all the fun that comes with oak IDs, we will have a live raffle throughout this event so everyone participating will have a chance to win an oak t-shirt and a California OakWatch Pin!

Resources:
To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide:
https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf

CA OakWatch Training Webinar

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions: jesparza@cnps.org

You’re tagged in this post because you were among some of the top identifiers/observers this month. We hope you take part in this challenge!
@graysquirrel @alexbinck @jrebman @catchang @carexobnupta @yerbasanta @j_stauffer @diego4nature @charlie @pgugger @cwbarrows @grnleaf @alaynam @arboretum_amy @ronvanderhoff @merav @boschniakia @tiwane @kueda @clem @velodrome @matt_g @flower_prof @serpophaga @jprbelli @marivillasol @cynestor @nelruzam @plantsoncolors @avocat @lowlander @mickeylong @ahaislip @sandy_b @spifferella @damontighe @sapienshane @hikingsandiego @dcoopercem @tchester @danieldas @reodell @tmessick @sgene @truthseqr @kevinhintsa @lilyboy @fjgregory @clarkia11 @loarie

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The shirts that will be raffled during this ID party and that will be used for future challenges come from F.M. Roberts Publications:
https://fmrpublications.com/shop
DO NOT miss the opportunity to win a beautiful CA scrub oaks/CA oak trees t-shirt!

If you are ever looking for any nature oriented productions including books, t-shirts, prints and notecards, check out the products available on the shop!

Nuttall's Scrub Oak (Quercus dumosa)
© @tonygurnoe (CC-BY-NC)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/137049009

Happy Halloween! It’s scary to know that oaks aren’t regenerating in much of California, but the trick is to treat yourself with a walk in nature documenting oaks!

So far it has been a busy October, but this month has brought us so many great things to celebrate – such as OAKS! This past month, and moving forward to November, we hope that you had a chance to celebrate our oaks here in California! 

We kicked off this month with an amazing webinar hosted by California Native Plant Society, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Global Conservation Consortium for Oaks (GCCO). This webinar features presentations from several expert botanists, detailing how to best identify priority, threatened oaks, native to California. This webinar is meant to serve as an educational resource and to encourage more people to contribute occurrence information to the California OakWatch Project. 

Check out the recordings below: 

The CA OakWatch project is happy to end the month of OAKtober and kick off the month of November with a quick challenge! Anyone can play an important role in celebrating oaks across California, so join the project and help us map oaks throughout the CA Floristic Province.

Details
October 31, 2022 – November 30, 2022
Starting now until Nov 30, we will be hosting a month-long observation challenge! The participant with the most observations by the end of November will be the winner! Similarly, the user with the most identifications will also have the opportunity to win. We will be awarding the winners with some cool prizes!

Resources
To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide:
https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf

You’re tagged in this post because you were among some of the top identifiers/observers this month. We hope you take part in this challenge!
@alexbinck @graysquirrel @velodrome @marivillasol @spifferella @carexobnupta @plantsoncolors @dcoopercem @grnleaf @cwbarrows @plantsoncolors @steinm @awevans99 @aigner @elizabeth_lockhart @mateo296 @c_meling @nancyfox @goflowers @mollydavis2198 @bmcneece @nrvaughna @hkibak

DATES: THURSDAY October 6; 12 PM PDT – 2 PM PDT
EVENT DETAILS |

Hello,

Please join us in an upcoming webinar hosted by California Native Plant Society, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak (GCCO), taking place on October 6th from 12-2 pm Pacific Daylight Time. This webinar will feature presentations from several expert botanists, detailing how to best identify priority, threatened oaks, native to California. This webinar is meant to serve as an educational resource and to encourage more people to contribute occurrence information to the iNaturalist California OakWatch Project.

The presentations will feature Quercus cedrosensis, Quercus dumosa, Quercus engelmannii, Quercus tomentella, Quercus pacifica and Quercus parvula, and other oak species.

You can register for the webinar through this link: https://bit.ly/3UoPGBW

We hope to see you there!