Pre-Conference Workshops

Emerging botanical field methods: using new technologies to identify, map, and explore wild diversity

Workshop length: Half day, offered twice on Jan 11, 2012: morning for citizen scientists (less experience) and afternoon for professionals (more experience).

List of presenters and brief biography: Daniel Gluesenkamp, John Malpas, Andrea Williams, and Mike Perlmutter

Daniel Gluesenkamp, Ph.D. is director of California Early Detection Networks and has helped to build the integrated mapping platform (IMP). In 2009, Daniel used the system to report rediscovery of the presumed-extinct Franciscan manzanita. He has taught at UC Berkeley, Sonoma State, and numerous training workshops.
John Malpas is lead engineer for the Calflora database, and has built an integrated mapping platform that combines mobile field collection tools (such as smart phones) with a web-accessible shared database to improve collection of field data and viewing of plant distributions.
Andrea Williams is vegetation ecologist for Marin Municipal Water District. She developed peer-reviewed inventory and monitoring protocols for vegetation of San Francisco Bay Area National Parks and has taught at the National Conservation Training Center and several other training workshops.
Mike Perlmutter is Coordinator for the Bay Area Early Detection Network (BAEDN). Mike has developed vouchering protocols for BAEDN, used electronic tools to map and prioritize plant populations, and organized BAEDN’s training workshops.

Workshop goal

The goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to the variety of new tools available for identifying, mapping, and exploring botanical diversity.

Workshop content

There has been a burst of innovation in the technical tools available for exploring California’s botanical diversity. Mobile phone apps, web-based tools, and GPS cameras give professional botanists and amateur naturalists the ability to identify plants in the field, precisely map plants, report beautiful or important discoveries, and explore diversity and distribution from mountaintop, desktop, or laptop. Efforts like Project Budburst and California’s Early Detection Networks use this information to secure California’s plant diversity in a time of change. However, tools can be duplicative, confusing, and often exaggerate their true utility. This training workshop introduces participants to the diversity of tools available, and helps them to understand their various uses.

Outline of major topics

Overview
Tried and true: review of existing field methods
How to identify your needs, goals, objectives
What tools you should use
Data quality considerations and approaches
Selecting and using smart phone apps and other mobile tools
Comparison of uses: tools for professionals, amateurs, educators
Field guides and keys (e.g. Earthrover, JM2 website, etc)
Citizen Science mapping apps (e.g. UCLA’s What’s Invasive app, and several others)
Professional mapping tools (e.g. Calflora Observer)
Hardware tips: choosing a tool, using phones without phone plan, backup power for all day use, etc.
Using cameras to record plant distribution and other scientific information
Importance of and tips for good photo vouchering
About GPS cameras: recording location of photos
Sharing your photo so they have scientific value: Flickr and photo sharing sites, Calphotos, using Calflora to add photos as mapping records
Professional track: Photomonitoring and tracking change
Vouchering
Rules, guidelines, techniques
Creating your own herbarium or reference collection
Professional track: submitting specimens for herbarium accession
Web-based tools for exploring diversity and improving scientific knowledge
Social naturalist sites for citizen scientists to report and improve understanding
Tools for educators, trainers, and volunteer coordinators
Neo-GIS mapping tools for land managers and scientists
Special uses: rare-plant-a-thon, distribution changes due to climate change, early detection of harmful invasive species